Estimating ITS Benefits: Guidelines for Evaluating ITS Projects

This report summarizes the results of a multi-year research project that looked into the benefits of deploying intelligent transportation systems (ITS) projects. In this report the researchers: * Summarize current estimates of the benefits of ITS deployments, and * Present detailed guidelines for evaluating existing ITS projects and for estimating potential benefits of prospective projects. In addition to describing what ITS is, the report addresses the range of benefits that can be expected from ITS deployments, identifies key sources for updated benefits information in a highly dynamic field, and develops a sound and consistent approach to setting goals and objectives and to measuring the benefits of ITS deployments. Using the detailed evaluation guidelines, the report identifies data collection and evaluation methodologies for 28 of the most commonly deployed market packages. Detailed evaluation "trees" are presented in an appendix. These trees lead the user through a comprehensive assessment of the goals, objectives, measures of effectiveness, and data requirements for each of the 28 market packages. Additional appendices present detailed recommendations for analytical approaches to specific analyses associated with various measures of effectiveness.