Multimodal investment choice analysis: Application of goal programming for selection of transportation projects

The Multimodal Investment Choice Analysis (MICA) project is a computer-based tool developed by the University of Washington to assist the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), the Washington State Transportation Commission, and the Washington State Legislature when making state transportation funding decisions. The function of MICA is to summarize the multimodal budgetary choices that will result from varying funding allocation and priority scenarios. MICA's methodology is based upon benefit-cost and goal achievement analyses. The project has recently completed the first phase of research.; The goal of this dissertation is to develop, evaluate and implement the linear goal programming optimization process used by the MICA program to select an optimal set of transportation projects for funding. Several goal programming formulations were analyzed and tested using a set of sample projects and scenarios to determine the best formulation for the problem statement. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses of the formulation were also performed to determine if the resulting solutions were stable. In addition, advanced formulations that considered multiple time periods and additional budget constraints were developed.