Implementation of evidence-based design approaches in transportation decision making

Evidence-based design (EBD) originated in the healthcare industry as a combination of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based practice. EBD is a process for creating or improving healthcare buildings by using rigorous evidence to create benchmarks of current practices, achieve specific goals, and then monitor the success of the design to inform future decision making. EBD studies for the healthcare industry are compiled into an international database to provide design information to all users. This paper reviews applications of EBD in healthcare and other fields, assesses the potential value of applying EBD in the transportation field, and makes recommendations that can help with the adoption of EBD for transportation design and engineering. Emerging areas such as transportation asset management, health impact assessments and green design are particularly appropriate and promising for the development and application of EBD databases. This paper is a useful resource for transportation executives or researchers who are interested in developing evidence-based databases to guide their future decision making to be more strategic to take advantage of proven successful applications. When appropriately applied, EBD has the potential to reduce costs and risks while increasing innovation and encouraging new ideas for transportation and other projects.