A Virtual Environment for the Formulation of Policy Packages
Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2-2014
Abstract
The interdependence and complexity of socio-technical systems and availability of a wide variety of policy measures to address policy problems make the process of policy formulation difficult. In order to formulate sustainable and efficient transport policies, development of new tools and techniques is necessary. One of the approaches gaining ground is policy packaging, which shifts focus from implementation of individual policy measures to implementation of combinations of measures with the aim of increasing efficiency and effectiveness of policy interventions by increasing synergies and reducing potential contradictions among policy measures. In this paper, we describe the development of a virtual environment for the exploration and analysis of different configurations of policy measures in order to build policy packages. By developing systematic approaches it is possible to examine more alternatives at a greater depth, decrease the time required for the overall analysis, provide real-time assessment and feedback on the effect of changes in the configurations, and ultimately form more effective policies. The results from this research demonstrate the usefulness of computational approaches in addressing the complexity inherent in the formulation of policy packages. This new approach has been applied to the formulation of policies to advance sustainable transportation. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords
Agent-based modelling; Decision support systems; Policy formulation; Policy packaging; Transport policy; Virtual environments
Discipline
Political Science | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
Volume
60
First Page
53
Last Page
68
ISSN
0965-8564
Identifier
10.1016/j.tra.2013.10.017
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
TAEIHAGH, Araz, Bañares-Alcántara, Rene, & Givoni, Moshe.(2014). A Virtual Environment for the Formulation of Policy Packages. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 60, 53-68.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1862
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2013.10.017