Evaluating transit operator efficiency:An enhanced DEA model with constrained fuzzy-AHP cones

摘要

This study addresses efforts to comb the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to deliver a robust enhanced DEA model for transit operator efficiency assessment. The proposed model is designed to better capture inherent prefer-ences information over input and output indicators by adding constraint cones to the con-ventional DEA model. A revised fuzzy-AHP model is employed to generate cones, where the proposed model features the integration of the fuzzy logic with a hierarchical AHP structure to:1) normalize the scales of different evaluation indicators, 2) construct the matrix of pair-wise comparisons with fuzzy set, and 3) optimize the weight of each criterion with a non-linear programming model. With introduction of cone-based constraints, the new system offers accounting advantages in the interaction among indicators when evaluating the performance of transit operators. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach, a real case in Nanjing City, the capital of China's Jiangsu Province, has been selected to assess the efficiencies of seven bus companies based on 2009 and 2010 datasets. A comparison between conventional DEA and enhanced DEA was also conducted to clarify the new sys-tem's superiority. Results reveal that the proposed model is more applicable in evaluating transit operator's efficiency thus encouraging a boarder range of applications.