A method for choosing from among alternative transportation projects

Choosing from among alternative transportation projects can be studied as a three-level hierarchy process: the first level is composed of the final goal one wishes to attain in carrying out the projects; the second level, represented by the points of view from which the projects are to be evaluated, is a political level; lastly, the third level, made up of the various projects themselves, is a technical level. This paper presents a choice method which accounts for the different nature of the two types of agents involved in the decision-making process: technicians and politicians. The method enables calculating the weights of the elements in each hierarchy level with respect to the elements in the next upper level through procedures different from those of traditional analytic hierarchy process, in that it accounts for the dependence of the viewpoints, weights on the projects' attributes.