LEAST-COST PLANNING: PRINCIPLES, APPLICATIONS AND ISSUES

This report summarizes existing research that relates to how public entities making transportation investment decisions can attempt to identify, quantify, value, and sum the benefits and costs of alternative transportation programs and projects. The report looks at an emerging transportation planning concept called "least-cost planning". Least-cost planning embodies both a planning process and specific analytical techniques. It attempts to meet a given set of transportation objectives with a combination of improvements, policies, and programs that is less expensive than any other combination. For planners at state departments of transportation or Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), this report provides a general framework (both planning concepts and analytical techniques) for evaluating transportation projects, and ideas on how to shift from current practices toward the type of analysis recommended.

  • Record URL:
  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This report is one of a series of reports issued periodically by the FHWA's Office of Environment and Planning, Metropolitan Planning Division. It was prepared under contract to COMSIS Corporation.
  • Corporate Authors:

    ECONorthwest

    22 W Tenth, Suite 400
    Eugene, OR  United States  97401

    Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas, Incorporated

    400 SW Sixth Avenue, Suite 802
    Portland, OR  United States  97204-1628

    Federal Highway Administration

    Office of Environment and Planning, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
    Washington, DC  United States  20590
  • Publication Date: 1995-9

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 132 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00735976
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: Technical Report No. 6
  • Files: NTL, TRIS, USDOT
  • Created Date: Apr 15 1997 12:00AM