Decision Support and Consensus Building for PLANiTS

Decision Support and Consensus Building for PLANiTS Developments in intelligent transportation systems simultaneously Present challenges and opportunities to urban transportation planning. The challenges to planning stem from the increased range and added complexity of the choices available to transportation planners. The implementation of IWS technologies, many of which have system-wide implications, will require change in the institutional arrangements that are currently at work in transportation planning, The opportunities for improved transportation planning are arising from the availability of information, communications, and computation technology. These same elements, which add intelligence to the transportation system, can be "harnessed" to enrich the planning process and to address the increasing complexities. Indeed a major advantage of new transportation technologies such as IVHS is the availability of new or enhanced information sources that can be of use to improve planning. But increased access to information can also overwhelm participants. A significant opportunity exists to assist planners to understand, synthesize and optimize ever growing amounts of information and choices. With these complexities and opportunities as specific objectives, PATH researchers have developed a framework and are designing a prototype to integrate planning and analysis in a computer supported environment that facilitates deliberation and consensus seeking. This framework is called Planning and Analysis to Integrate Intelligent Urban Transportation Systems or PLANiTS. Placing the planning process in a computer aided environment makes it more transparent and gives users the opportunity to seek consensus on the basic assumptions, criteria and models of analysis, as well as the programming decisions. The prescribed planning process, conducted with the aid of an intelligent facilitator, integrates on-line analysis capabilities. Since decision making occurs during the entire planning process, decision support encompasses the entire conceptual framework. The intelligent facilitator will support a deliberative process in which alternative strategies are analyzed and evaluated and decision makers are assisted in reaching resolution concerning plans and programming of projects. . This paper describes the specifications and the determinants for inclusion of a deliberative process to support intelligent transportation planning. Specifications for a system suitable for transportation planning have been defined, as have the determinants of a prototype for inclusion in early versions of an intelligent transportation planning process.