the development of this dissertation Understanding and Applying the Concept of Sustainable Development to Transportation Planning and Decision-Making in the U.S.

This research demonstrates that sustainable development is a multidimensional conceptthat should be approached in a transdisciplinary manner. Its objective has been tosynthesize and integrate disparate and currently unconnected lines of thought that havenot yet been applied in a systematic way to promote sustainable development andsustainable transportation. The primary contribution of this research is the theoreticaldevelopment of a decision-support framework that identifies the tools and approachesthat decision-makers could/should use to create policies and programs that transitionsociety towards sustainability. These tools and approaches are either articulated ordeveloped by the author throughout the dissertation. Specific ideas explored include aRawlsian/utilitarian decision-making philosophy; a hybrid trade-off/positional analysisframework that is presented as an alternative to benefit-cost analysis; ecological vs.environmental economics; participatory backcasting; and ways to stimulate disruptingand/or radical technological innovation. To identify gaps that exist between theory and practice, the approach embodied in theproposed sustainable transportation decision-support framework is compared with currentmetropolitan transportation planning and decision-making processes in the U.S. Theframework is then used to consider how the U.S. federal government might move thenation’s transportation system towards sustainability. David H. MarksMorton and Claire Goulder Family Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineeringand Engineering Systems, Thesis Committee Chair Nicholas A. AshfordProfessor of Technology and Policy, Co-Thesis Supervisor Joseph F. CoughlinDirector, AgeLab, Thesis Committee Member Joseph M. SussmanJ.R. East Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems,Co-Thesis Supervisor