Abstract
In this paper we deal with assessing the environmental impact of heavy road traffic. For this purpose, the multiattribute disutility functions for the air pollution, noise and dust are tried to construct based on the information obtained from the questionnaires to the specialists of environmental problems. When we asked the environmental specialists to answer the questionnaires, we asked them to act as the regional inhabitants of the concerning road. The interdependence, called convex dependence, among multiple attributes is taken into account when a disutility function is constructed. Furthermore, analyzing the answers to the questionnaire based on a cluster analysis, the environmental specialists were classified into two groups, and an average disutility function for each group was obtained. Since the disutility function obtained in such a way is clearly a monotone decreasing function of the distance from the road, we call the disutility function as a “conscious distance from the road”. Using this conscious distance from the road it is possible to measure the effectiveness of various counter-measures for preventing the environmental impact of heavy road traffic.
