Challenges in Developing a Transportation Sustainability Rating System That Meets the Preferences of a Department of Transportation
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 4
Abstract
Increasingly, sustainability is a key indicator for planning transportation projects. As a result, evaluating the applicability of various transportation sustainability rating systems (TSRS) for adoption is important for the transportation industry in general, and for specific transportation organizations in particular. Several contending TSRSs are emerging, and provide various methods of guidance with regard to sustainability for infrastructure projects throughout project delivery. Different TSRSs, for example, employ different methods to determine or quantify sustainability and emphasize different sustainability factors. As a result, comparing the various systems and their suitability for implementation by a specific transportation organization can be a challenge. In this research, the authors apply the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as the method to assist in such an evaluation according to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT’s) preferences. Application of AHP in previous research resulted in identification of the Infrastructure Voluntary Evaluation Sustainability Tool (INVEST) as the most suitable TSRS for CDOT. Here we compare previous results to CDOT’s recently developed custom TSRS. Findings indicate that CDOT’s own custom system ranks fourth compared to existing and publicly available TSRSs according to its own stated preferences. This unexpected result highlights unique issues and challenges related to developing an effective TSRS for a Department of Transportation (DOT), as well as potential issues and biases when applying AHP to assess sustainability tools.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially funded by the Mountain-Plains Consortium (MPC), a competitively selected university program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation through its Research and Innovative Technology Administration. The opinions and findings are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of MPC. The authors would like to thank CDOT and its representatives who participated in this research.
References
Awasthi, A., and Chauhan, S. S. (2011). “Using AHP and Dempster–Shafer theory for evaluating sustainable transport solutions.” Environ. Modell. Software, 26(6), 787–796.
Awasthi, A., Chauhan, S. S., and Omrani, H. (2011). “Application of fuzzy TOPSIS in evaluating sustainable transportation systems.” Expert Syst. Appl., 38(10), 12270–12280.
Black, J. A., Paez, A., and Suthanaya, P. A. (2002). “Sustainable urban transportation: Performance indicators and some analytical approaches.” J. Urban Plann. Dev., 184–209.
Black, W. R. (2010). Sustainable transportation problems and solutions, Guilford Press, New York.
Booth, C. A., Hamond, F. N., Lamond, J. E., and Proverbs, D. G. (2013). Solutions to climate change challenges in the built environment, Blackwell, Oxford.
Browne, D., O’Regan, B., and Moles, R. (2008). “Use of ecological footprinting to explore alternative transport policy scenarios in an Irish city-region.” Transp. Res. Part D Transp. Environ., 13(5), 315–322.
CDOT. (2013). “Sustainability in roadway design and construction plan (Draft).” Denver.
Cleary, J. (2009). “Life cycle assessments of municipal solid waste management systems: A comparative analysis of selected peer-reviewed literature.” Environ. Int., 35(8), 1256–1266.
Clevenger, C. M., Ozbek, M. E., and Simpson, S. (2013). “Review of sustainability rating systems used for infrastructure projects.” Proc., Associated Schools of Construction 49th Annual Int. Conf., Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS.
FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). (2012a). “INVEST, Economic, Social, Environmental.” 〈https://www.sustainablehighways.org/〉 (Mar. 17, 2013).
FHWA (Federal Highway Administration). (2012b). “Moving ahead for progress in the 21st century (MAP-21) performance management.” 〈http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/docs/pm.pdf〉 (Mar. 17, 2013).
Hirsch, A. (2011). “Summary of transportation sustainability rating system programs.” 〈http://terralogicss.com/sustainable-transportation/summary-of-transportation-sustainability-rating-system-programs〉 (May 1, 2014).
IPCC. (2014). “Climate change 2014: Mitigation of climate change.” Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Rep. of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, O. Edenhofer, et al., eds., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Krekeler, P., Nelson, D. A., Gritsavage, J. S., Kolb, E., and McVoy, G. R. (2010). “Moving towards Sustainability: New York state department of transportation’s GreenLITES Story.” Green Streets and Highways 2010, ASCE, Reston, VA, 461–479.
Kubba, S. (2010). LEED practices, certification, and accreditation handbook, Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier, Burlington, MA.
LBC (Living Building Challenge). (2013). “The certification process.” 〈http://living-future.org/lbc/certification〉 (May 1, 2014).
Martland, C. D. (2012). Toward more sustainable infrastructure: Project evaluation for planners and engineers, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Reeder, L. (2010). Guide to green building rating systems: Understanding LEED, Green Globes, Energy Star, the National green building standard, and more, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Saaty, T. L., and Alexander, J. M. (1989). Conflict resolution: The analytic hierarchy approach, RWS Publications, Pittsburgh.
Saaty, T. L., and Vargas, L. G. (2001). Models, methods, concepts & applications of the analytic hierarchy process, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.
Simpson, S., Clevenger, C. M., Ozbek, M. E., Rabbani, E., and Atadero, R. (2014). “A framework for assessing transportation sustainability rating systems for implementation in U.S. State departments of transportation.” Proc., 2014 TRB 93rd Annual Conf., Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council Directory). (2013). 〈http://www.usgbc.org/projects〉 (May 1, 2014).
Wellar, B. (2009). “Sampler of commentaries on methods and techniques that could be used in making decisions about identifying, adopting, or implementing sustainable transport practices.” 〈http://wellar.ca/wellarconsulting/TC%20Project%20Research%20Report%203.pdf〉 (May 1, 2014).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 4 • April 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 2, 2014
Accepted: Oct 16, 2015
Published online: Jan 11, 2016
Published in print: Apr 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 11, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.