Research On Performance Trade-offs For Road Transportation System And Related Eco-efficiency

Road transportation systems vary according to the overall transportation policies and projects,it gets very complex to measure when related ecological factor is taken into account.The efficiency of a road transportation system may draw very different assumptions because of how it is defined.A common approach to evaluate the efficiency of the road transportation system is based on mobility,which is positively related to effective travel costs,time,safety,flexibility and profit,etcetera.Although,the energy and related emissions are also linked positively to the transportation system but not openly researched together with its direct performance indicators.The upgradation and expansion of infrastructure has been a part of the transportation system’s improvement since the industrial revolution.Until recently,researchers have become more and more interested in finding ways to improve transportation efficiency without having repeatedly built new roads.This is because of the fact that repeated infrastructure not only demand massive investments but also poses ecological threats(i.e.public displacement,inequality in development,and energy consumption and emissions).For an alternate solution,this study uses the trade-off methods to address the road transport operational and related ecological efficiencies.Modern road transportation system consists of operational(direct)efficiency as well as related ecological(indirect)efficiency.In an effort to propose performance trade-off methods as an alternate management tool for efficient road transportation system,this study takes in to account the direct and indirect performance indicators to quantitatively perform trade-offs using simulation and computational analysis.It is accomplished,first,by using simple trade-off function for transport operational efficiency,then,a more complex approach is employed to address the operational and ecological efficiency together.The first part of the research explores the types of the performance trade-offs and their relationship with transportation resources and attributes.Then,with statistical support,namely probability density function(PDF),this study uses the trade-off function to perform logical trade-offs considering the highway transportation system.Thus such a trade-off function is to maximize the total satisfaction of the road transportation system.The simulation analysis in this part of the study provide an effective trade-off method for several reliable highway routes.Second part of this study identify and perform trade-offs using computational analysis.It uses linear data envelopment analysis(DEA)to perform slack-based measurement(SBM)to assess the indirect efficiencies of 19 developing countries.By using the most commonly quoted transport-related input variables,such as vehicles,labor,motor oil,and natural gas,this study,first,analyzes the road transportation systems’ efficiency by assuming output variables separately,and then based on the premise of two years(i.e.before and after the infrastructure investments),the aggregate output model is calculated.As a result,the degree of slack is determined,and these slacks can be trade-off to further enhance the indirect(ecological)efficiency of the countries(that is,to achieve optimal efficiency point).The study further determines the trade-off schemes using marginal trade-off method in the end,which reduce the sensitivity of the trade-offs,such as,it does not deteriorate the efficiency of the rest of the performance factors but increase the overall efficiency of the system using indirect indicators.It proves the practical evidence of performance trade-offs in the road transportation systems.The recommendation drawn in this thesis may attract related policy makers and operational managers to look into alternate management techniques,such as performance trade-offs and specifically marginal trade-offs,for sustainable road transportation systems.This research authenticates the trade-off method to serve as an effective alternate solution to infrastructure investments(in billions),ecological deficiencies,and growing transportation demand.