Total Impact Evaluation of Transportation Systems

Abstract

Impact assessment, in general, includes the environmental safety and security considerations, and cost/cost-benefit analysis of the used sources. As usual, the impact is evaluated at two levels: (1) impact during operation (usage) related to a chosen operational unit (e.g., running distance [km], operational time [h] or calendar time [h]), (2) the life-cycle (project life-cycle) impact. The environmental impact is characterized by the chemical and noise emissions. Safety and security are estimated by risks. Costs are calculated based on the required financial support and caused losses. All these calculations are related to the individual vehicles or vehicles with average behaviours. The investigation of sustainability impact requires a wider evaluation and approach, for example, by also including production and recycling beside the operational aspects. This paper generalizes the impact analysis. At first, it considers all types of impacts including the direct (e.g., accidents) and indirect long-term effects (e.g., health problems caused by emissions). All the impacts are expressed as costs. The defined Sustainable Transportation Performance Index (STPI) is the Total Life-Cycle Cost (TLCC) related to the unit of transport work. As such, it combines the life-cycle emissions evaluation and transport costing methods. It contains the total operational and total impact costs. The proposed approach introduces three new specific features in the impact analysis: (1) the impact is evaluated on the transportation system level, (2) the impact is estimated as the total value (including all the related sub-systems and elements, like vehicles, transport infrastructure, transport flow control, etc.), (3) proposes a unique index to describe the total impact. The paper describes the general equations and the developed methodology for the estimation of the total impact and analyses its applicability. The preliminary results demonstrate the applicability of the defined index and its evaluation methodology. It also shows the limitations of traditional cost models. Further test results and wider application of the methodology will be provided in a series of follow up papers by the research team.

Intelligent Total Transportation Management System for Future Smart Cities

“…By adapting the total impact concept [39,46,47], the objective function can be defined in several different forms depending on the management's objectives. One of the most important primary objectives is the minimization of the energy used by transportation.…”

“…Numerous studies deal with the environmental impact of smart cities and smart transportation, including life-cycle analyses [38,39], and the stochastic shortest path problem [40,41], while just a limited number of papers discuss possible environmental harm reduction by optimizing total transportation. Instead, some parts of transportation and optimization are investigated, like the impact of using electric vehicles [42].…”

Sustainable Disaster Response Management Related to Large Technical Systems

“…The total life-cycle cost must consider all cost elements. See for example its application to transportation systems [82,83] (Second transport paper).…”

An Application of Impact Calculation Method in Transportation

“…The definition and method of evaluation of the total impact that applies in this methodology development were introduced by reference (Rohács, J., Rohács, D. 2020). The simplified and unique index evaluating the total impact is given in form of total cost induced by all life-cycle effects of the transportation system in the form of related to a unit of transport work ([pkm] or [tkm]):…”

“…This paper is associated with the research by Rohács, J. and Rohács, D. (2020) introduces special index for total impact analysis calculated in forms of total external costs generated by using the transportation system. It develops a practical method for realization the total impact calculation described in the research by Rohács, J., Rohács, D. (2020). The developed methodology was used for investigation and comparison of total impact of conventional and electric cars operating in US and EU (Wangai et al 2017).…”