OPTIMAL HIGHWAY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT INVESTMENTS BY DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING

Determining which projects to implement under a given budget and which to defer until later is central to the planning and management of highway systems. With a limited budget for construction, maintenance, and safety improvements, investments must produce optimal benefits. This paper discusses a dynamic programming procedure developed to select the optimal combination of safety improvement projects for a given budget. The type of dynamic programming considered is multistage, i.e., cost optimization of several projects, each with one or more alternatives. All safety improvement costs are dealt with in terms of present worth, and consideration is given to construction or installation cost, yearly maintenance cost, yearly maintenance cost, present interest rate, and expected life of the improvement. The option of staging safety improvements over a number of years was excluded from this analysis. All possible combinations of improvements were input as alternatives for each of the 61 projects involved in this study. The input consisted of the designated budget for the safety improvement program, the improvement cost, and the benefits derived from each improvement. The accuracy and reliability of dynamic programming depend on the accuracy of benefits and costs used as input. In a comparison with benefit-cost analyses, dynamic programming yielded a higher return for a given budget. An optimal allocation of funds will always be obtained if the individual project costs are multiples of the increment used in dynamic programming.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1976/585/585-005.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=OPTIMAL+HIGHWAY+SAFETY+IMPROVEMENT+INVESTMENTS+BY+DYNAMIC+PROGRAMMING&author=J.+Pigman&author=K.+Agent&author=J.+Mayes&author=C.+Zegeer&publication_year=1976
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Transportation Programming, Planning, and Evaluation. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Pigman, J G
  • Agent, K R
  • Mayes, J G
  • Zegeer, C V
• Conference:
  • 54th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia
  • Date: 1975-1-13 to 1975-1-17
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 49-59
• Monograph Title: Transportation Programming and Management
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 585
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Benefit cost analysis; Dynamic programming; Highway planning; Highway safety; Highways; Improvements; Investments; Optimization
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fund allocations
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00141523
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309024994
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Nov 17 1976 12:00AM