Transport decision processes have traditionally applied cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with benefits
mainly relating to time savings, and costs relating to infrastructure and maintenance costs.
However, a shift toward more sustainable practices was initiated over the last decades to remedy
the many negative impacts of automobility. As a result, decision processes related to transport
projects have become more complex due to the multidimensional aspects and to the variety of
stakeholders involved, often with conflicting points of view. To support rigorous decision making,
multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) is, in addition to CBA, often used by governments and
cities. However, there is still no consensus in the transport field regarding a preferred method that
can integrate sustainability principles. This paper presents a descriptive literature review related to
MCDA and CBA in the field of transport. Among the 66 considered papers, we identified the
perceived strengths and weaknesses of CBA and MCDA, the different ways to combine them and
the ability of each method to support sustainable transport decision processes. We further analysed
the results based on four types of rationality (objectivist, conformist, adjustive and reflexive). Our
results show that both methods can help improve the decision processes and that, depending on
the rationality adopted, the perceived strengths and weaknesses of MCDA and CBA can vary.
Nonetheless, we observe that by adopting a more global and holistic perspective and by facilitating
the inclusion of a participative process, MCDA, or a combination of both methods, emerge as the
more promising appraisal methods for sustainable transport
