Application of Principal Component Analysis on Comprehensive Evaluation for Electronic Toll Collection

The impacts evaluation for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) has important practical significance for the implementation of ITS schemes. By making in-depth study on electronic toll collection (ETC) schemes, this paper presents a comprehensive evaluation model for the socio-economic impacts evaluation of ETC schemes by applying principal component analysis method and an example is introduced based on simulated project. The evaluation results show that principal component analysis method can take into account some benefits and impacts difficult to be quantified in monetary form, so the evaluation results should be more overall and objective. The method will offer a quantitative support for both national and local transportation departments to understand the ETC schemes service efficiency level and formulate ETC schemes investment policy.