A multicriteria analysis approach for benchmarking smart transport cities

The development of smart transport systems has proven to be crucial for cities around the world due to their capabilities to respond to challenges of rapid urbanization and growing traffic congestion. However, there is still a lack of research done on the comparative performance evaluation of those smart transport systems. Benchmarking is therefore necessary for comparing the performance of smart transport systems in different cities and identifying areas for improvement. This paper develops a multicriteria analysis approach for evaluating the performance of different cities based on the smartness of their transportation systems. The subjectiveness and imprecision of the evaluation process are modelled as fuzzy numbers by means of linguistic terms. An efficient algorithm is developed for producing a smartness index for every smart transport city alternative across all evaluation criteria. The approach provides a useful mechanism for relevant transport authorities and agencies to identify main issues concerning their transportation systems and develop key strategies for improving their smart transport systems. An example is presented for demonstrating the applicability of the approach.