Combining the functional unit concept and the analytic hierarchy process method for performance assessment of public transport options

Abstract

This paper presents a case study covering the operational and functional performances of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT), and Monorail (MNT) modes in the São Paulo City, Brazil. The innovative multicriteria decision aid model (MCDAM) combine the use of a Functional Unit with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to access objective and subjective preferences of stakeholders and performances of alternatives of three transport options. The case study shows that the MCDAM has proven to be the most effective. The Functional Unit provided a common set of requirements to guide the performance assessment of the modal options. In addition, the evaluated stakeholders’ preferences were combined with the performance assessment resulting into global priority indexes based on a linear additive function algorithm.