A NEW TOOL FOR BENEFIT-COST ANALYSIS IN EVALUATING TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act emphasizes assessment of multimodal alternatives and demand management strategies. This emphasis has increased the need for planners to provide good comparative information to decision-makers. Benefit-cost analysis is a useful tool to compare the economic worth of alternatives and evaluate tradeoffs between economic benefits and non-monetizable social and environmental impacts. In 1995, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed a sketch planning tool called the Sketch Planning Analysis Spreadsheet Model (SPASM) to assist planners in developing the type of economic efficiency and other evaluative information needed to compare across modes and demand management strategies, at a sketch planning level of analysis for corridor studies. When more detailed analysis is required, however, SPASM cannot be used directly, owing to several simplifying assumptions. Also, it is difficult to use SPASM for systemwide analysis. To allow more detailed analysis at both the system and corridor levels, FHWA has developed an enhanced version of SPASM. There are several significant improvements. First, the software accepts input directly from the four step travel demand modeling process or from off-model software such as FHWA's TDM software. Second, it post-processes outputs from conventional four-step planning models, in order to get more accurate highway travel speeds, especially under congested conditions. Third, it performs risk analysis to clearly describe the level of uncertainty in the results of the analysis, so that the debate can shift from unproductive technical controversy to compromise and action. The software is based on the principles of economic analysis, and allows development of monetized impact estimates for a wide range of transportation investments and policies, including major capital projects, pricing and travel demand management (TDM). This paper provides a case study application of the enhanced software in evaluation of corridor alternatives and system plan alternatives for Toledo, Ohio. The case study demonstrates that the new software can be a useful tool in providing information of interest to decision-makers.

• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/13883
• Supplemental Notes:
  • The proceedings are available only on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • DeCorla-Souza, P
  • Culp, M
  • HUNT, J
  • Cohen, H
  • Haling, D
• Conference:
  • Sixth TRB Conference on the Application of Transportation Planning Methods
  • Location: Dearborn, Michigan
  • Date: 1997-5-19 to 1997-5-23
• Publication Date: 1997

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 11p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Benefit cost analysis; Case studies; Decision making; Economic benefits; Environmental impacts; Sketch planning; Social impacts; Software; Strategic planning; Transportation corridors; Transportation planning; Travel demand management
• Identifier Terms: Spasm (Computer program)
• Geographic Terms: Toledo (Ohio)
• Subject Areas: Economics; Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Terminals and Facilities; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00789765
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: NTL, TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 10 2000 12:00AM