TRANS-POL: A mediator between transportation models and decision makers' policies

TRANS-POL is a Decision Support System (DSS) specifically developed for the transport policy sector, which is capable of presenting the impacts from the implementation of transport policies and projects. It is developed to build intelligent translators between end users' questions and sophisticated transport model outputs. Hence, it links Expert Systems (ES) and DSS with advanced transportation models so that functionality between them is achieved. TRANS-POL comprises a set of basic tools that facilitate navigation by transport and computer experts and policy makers through all the available system resources (databases, maps, transport models etc.) and complementary tools such as desktop mapping, GIS, database management and multicriteria evaluation for transportation infrastructure projects. TRANS-POL application to example cases has proven its functionality and use. The added value of TRANS-POL is that it provides a medium for bringing together all kinds of transport models and databases, making them available to a wider audience in a user friendly environment.