With the dramatic increase of traffic volume, traffic congestion has become a topic of considerable interest in the United States. Congestion has resulted in enormous economic and environmental losses, and the use of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) has been found to be an effective solution to relieve congestion in urbanized areas. The study presented in this paper aimed to advance the body of knowledge on sustainability impacts through a triple bottom line (TBL) evaluation of congestion relief in Florida. Rather than consider only the direct economic benefits as in traditional projects, this study strove to fill the gap for decision makers in the analysis of sustainability impacts from a holistic perspective. A critical approach to this research was to include both the direct and the indirect environmental, economic, and ecologic impacts associated with the chain of supply paths of ITS. To meet this goal, economic input-output tables, published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, were linked to various TBL sustainability indicators to gain better insight into the sustainability impact of congestion relief. Study results indicated that 1.38 E+05 tons of greenhouse gas emissions (tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) and 3.00 E+04 global hectares of carbon dioxide uptake land were saved in Florida in 2010. Moreover, annual delay reduction costs savings were $420 million, of which the net fuel-based savings were $17.2 million.
Congestion Relief Based on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Florida
Analysis of Triple Bottom Line Sustainability Impact
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board ; 2380 , 1 ; 81-89
2013-01-01
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Intelligent transportation systems to mitigate road traffic congestion
IOS Press | 2022
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