Application of a Decision Support System in Urban Traffic Management

The increasing concentration of the population in cities, along with the mass production of cars, is causing major changes in cities and increased hazards such as traffic problems. This is becoming a major concern for the authorities and inhabitants of cities. The majority of methods used to overcome these traffic problems are short-term and local actions. However, there are also some fundamental and longterm methods that can be used. The Decision Support System is one of these methods. As with many other methods, these systems rely on computerisation, and help to make decisions for tasks that don’t have a formal or complete structure. They also improve efficiency by acting in a supportive role to produce judgements and improve the effectiveness of policymakers’ decisions.The first piece of research in this field was in 2000, and yielded an advanced Decision Support System in the development of the transport network in Europe (Magrite, 2000). However, there has been very little study into the role of a traffic management system in Iran, although according to the results from research carried out by the Guayas group in 201 U.S companies, a Decision Support System is indicated to produce a higher quality of decision making, improve communication, reduce costs, increase productivity, save time and improve satisfaction. Therefore it is essential to assess the Decision Support System as an optimal method for urban traffic management to determine the effect that using these Systems will have on traffic management systems. The result of this study makes recommendations for an appropriate model for planning in the future. As this study is an analyticaldescriptive piece of research, the documentary method is used for data gathering.