APPLYING LEAST COST PLANNING TO PUGET SOUND REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION. PHASE I REPORT

This report presents the results of the first phase of a two-part least cost planning transportation study. The study was undertaken in response to a request by Washington Department of Transportation to suggest how least cost planning concepts might be applied to the work of the Regional Transit Authority (RTA). The first phase has produced the conceptual design and logic for a computer model which incorporates the principles of least cost planning and an extensive list of transportation options for the region. The second phase will allow the model to be calibrated and applied to alternative transportation portfolios. Least cost planning, which has been successfully used in electrical power planning in the Northwest, is a tool that can be employed to help solve the difficult and complex transportation problems facing the central Puget Sound region. Least cost planning aims to develop transportation plans which are socially optimal. It achieves this objective by searching every feasible alternative, those which limit demand as well as those which increase capacity. Current planning practices, by contrast, search within a narrow range of possibilities and achieve results which are not truly optimal.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute for Transportation and the Environment

  85 East Roanoke Street
  Seattle, WA  United States  98102
• Authors:
  • Nelson, D
  • Shakow, D
• Publication Date: 1994-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 91 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Conceptual models; Cost effectiveness; Economic models; Least overall cost; Regional transportation; Socioeconomic factors; Transportation planning
• Geographic Terms: Puget Sound; Puget Sound Region; Washington (State)
• Old TRIS Terms: Least cost planning
• Subject Areas: Economics; Finance; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00667348
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 21 1994 12:00AM