Benefits Estimates of Highway Capital Improvements with Uncertain Parameters

Benefits Estimates of Highway Capital Improvements with Uncertain Parameters PDF Author: James Hamilton Lambert
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Project management
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
This report warrants consideration in the development of goals, performance measures, and standard cost-benefit methodology required of transportation agencies by the Virginia 2006 Appropriations Act. The Virginia Department of Transportation has begun to implement a quantitative methodology as an aid to prioritizing highway construction projects in four categories: interstate, primary, urban, and rural. The methodology adopts fifteen quantitative metrics including level of service (LOS), volume-to-capacity ratio, traffic flow, intermodal access, crash rate, emergency route access, heavy truck usage, unemployment rate, environmental issues, right-of-way use, use of alternative transportation modes, bridge sufficiency rating, and cost-effectiveness. The results of the methodology are used by executive review teams to negotiate, interpret, and support decisions regarding the selection of construction projects for funding in a $1.8 billion construction program. This report describes an effort to extend the current prioritization methodology via modeling and uncertainty analysis of the risk reductions, benefits, and costs that are expected of candidate construction projects. The report (1) develops monetized estimates of benefits in several categories including crashes avoided, travel time saved, fuel uses avoided, and emissions avoided; (2) compares the estimates of benefits to the estimates of project costs, representing the uncertainty of the results as numerical intervals; and (3) compares the results to the results of the prioritization methodology that is currently in use. The major contribution of the report is the assembly of existing and new methods of benefits assessment via an interval analysis of uncertainty that enables a prioritization to proceed with sparse data on a large number of potential projects. With the interval analysis of uncertainty, a decision maker is provided with a sound basis to recommend that more data are needed or that existing available data are sufficient to distinguish among the potential projects. The developed methodology is demonstrated with project data from VDOT's Northern Virginia District using a database of performance criteria of 53 candidate projects ranging in cost from $2 million to $130 million. A prototype of a prioritization software was developed along with the report for the support of future analyses.

Benefits Estimates of Highway Capital Improvements with Uncertain Parameters

Benefits Estimates of Highway Capital Improvements with Uncertain Parameters PDF Author: James Hamilton Lambert
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Project management
Languages : en
Pages : 40

Get Book Here

Book Description
This report warrants consideration in the development of goals, performance measures, and standard cost-benefit methodology required of transportation agencies by the Virginia 2006 Appropriations Act. The Virginia Department of Transportation has begun to implement a quantitative methodology as an aid to prioritizing highway construction projects in four categories: interstate, primary, urban, and rural. The methodology adopts fifteen quantitative metrics including level of service (LOS), volume-to-capacity ratio, traffic flow, intermodal access, crash rate, emergency route access, heavy truck usage, unemployment rate, environmental issues, right-of-way use, use of alternative transportation modes, bridge sufficiency rating, and cost-effectiveness. The results of the methodology are used by executive review teams to negotiate, interpret, and support decisions regarding the selection of construction projects for funding in a $1.8 billion construction program. This report describes an effort to extend the current prioritization methodology via modeling and uncertainty analysis of the risk reductions, benefits, and costs that are expected of candidate construction projects. The report (1) develops monetized estimates of benefits in several categories including crashes avoided, travel time saved, fuel uses avoided, and emissions avoided; (2) compares the estimates of benefits to the estimates of project costs, representing the uncertainty of the results as numerical intervals; and (3) compares the results to the results of the prioritization methodology that is currently in use. The major contribution of the report is the assembly of existing and new methods of benefits assessment via an interval analysis of uncertainty that enables a prioritization to proceed with sparse data on a large number of potential projects. With the interval analysis of uncertainty, a decision maker is provided with a sound basis to recommend that more data are needed or that existing available data are sufficient to distinguish among the potential projects. The developed methodology is demonstrated with project data from VDOT's Northern Virginia District using a database of performance criteria of 53 candidate projects ranging in cost from $2 million to $130 million. A prototype of a prioritization software was developed along with the report for the support of future analyses.

Framework and Tools for Estimating Benefits of Specific Freight Network Investments

Framework and Tools for Estimating Benefits of Specific Freight Network Investments PDF Author:
Publisher: Transportation Research Board
ISBN: 0309213568
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
"This report provides a comprehensive analytical framework and related tools that private-sector freight transportation modes and public-sector transportation interests can use to estimate private and public benefits to evaluate potential freight infrastructure investments. Using interviews with transportation planners and an extensive review of prior research and a review of current methods used to assess freight benefits or prioritize improvement projects, the research developed a freight evaluation framework with three main functions: (1) to enhance public planning and decision-making processes regarding freight; (2) to supplement benefit/cost assessment with distributional impact measures; and (3) to advance public-private cooperation. The framework is capable of handling projects that span all of the different modes and able to assess benefits from a variety of project types, including those that improve freight operations, as well as generate more capacity through infrastructure expansion. The research, by developing a practical set of formats for information collection, will support public-private agency discussions by helping all parties understand the wide range of perspectives and interests in potential freight investments."--Pub. desc.

User and Non-user Benefit Analysis for Highways

User and Non-user Benefit Analysis for Highways PDF Author:
Publisher: American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials
ISBN: 9781560514671
Category : Roads
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This document updates and expands the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) User Benefit Analysis for Highways, also known as the Red Book. This AASHTO publication helps state and local transportation planning authorities evaluate the economic benefits of highway improvements. This update incorporates improvements in user-benefit calculation methods and, for the first time, provides guidance for evaluating important non-user impacts of highways. Previous editions of the Red Book provided guidance regarding user benefit measurement only. This update provides a framework for project evaluations that accurately account for both user and non-user benefits. The manual and accompanying CD-ROM provide a valuable resource for people who analyze the benefits and costs of highway projects.

Policy Analysis

Policy Analysis PDF Author: David L. Weimer
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1315442116
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Often described as a public policy “bible,” Weimer and Vining remains the essential primer it ever was. Now in its sixth edition, Policy Analysis provides a strong conceptual foundation of the rationales for and the limitations to public policy. It offers practical advice about how to do policy analysis, but goes a bit deeper to demonstrate the application of advanced analytical techniques through the use of case studies. Updates to this edition include: A chapter dedicated to distinguishing between policy analysis, policy research, stakeholder analysis, and research about the policy process. An extensively updated chapter on policy problems as market and governmental failure that explores the popularity of Uber and its consequences. The presentation of a property rights perspective in the chapter on government supply to help show the goal tensions that arise from mixed ownership. An entirely new chapter on performing analysis from the perspective of a public agency and a particular program within the agency’s portfolio: public agency strategic analysis (PASA). A substantially rewritten chapter on cost–benefit analysis, to better prepare students to become producers and consumers of the types of cost–benefit analyses they will encounter in regulatory analysis and social policy careers. A new introductory case with a debriefing that provides advice to help students immediately begin work on their own projects. Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practices remains a comprehensive, serious, and rich introduction to policy analysis for students in public policy, public administration, and business programs.

Highway Noise; a Design Guide for Highway Engineers

Highway Noise; a Design Guide for Highway Engineers PDF Author: Bolt, Beranek, and Newman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Roads
Languages : en
Pages : 840

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Book Description
Various methods of assessing noise, loudness, and noise annoyance are reviewed and explained; sources, types, and intensities of traffic noise are noted; typical means of abatement and attenuation are described; design criteria for various land uses ranging from low-density to industrial are suggested and compared with the results of previous BBN and British systems for predicting annoyance and complaint; and a design guide for predicting traffic noise, capable of being programmed for batch and on-line computer applications, is presented in form suitable for use as a working tool. A flow diagram describes the interrelationships of elements in the traffic noise prediction methodology, and each element is discussed in detail in the text. The text is presented of a tape recording that takes the listener through a series of traffic situations, with such variables as traffic distance, flow velocity, distance, outdoors and indoors, and presence or absence of absorbers and attenuators.

Infrastructure and the Complexity of Economic Development

Infrastructure and the Complexity of Economic Development PDF Author: David F. Batten
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642802664
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The book examines the complex relationships between infrastructure and the rest of the economy. In particular, it focuses on the contentious issue of whether infrastructure investments stimulate productivity growth, issues of pricing and ownership, and also development problems such as environmental damage. Methods range from traditional production function models and compensating variation approaches to nonlinear methods of dynamic analysis. There is a unique emphasis on the ability of these different methods to allow for the complex interdependencies involved. Six of the fifteen papers deal with these methodological aspects, whereas the remainder addresses specific cases or examples in a variety of countries (Europe, USA and developing countries).

21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook

21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook PDF Author: Rhona C. Free
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1412961424
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1038

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Book Description
Interest in economics is at an all-time high. Among the challenges facing the nation is an economy with rapidly rising unemployment, failures of major businesses and industries, and continued dependence on oil with its wildly fluctuating price. Americans are debating the proper role of the government in company bailouts, the effectiveness of tax cuts versus increased government spending to stimulate the economy, and potential effects of deflation. Economists have dealt with such questions for generations, but they have taken on new meaning and significance. Tackling these questions and encompassing analysis of traditional economic theory and topics as well as those that economists have only more recently addressed, 21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook is intended to meet the needs of several types of readers. Undergraduate students preparing for exams will find summaries of theory and models in key areas of micro and macroeconomics. Readers interested in learning about economic analysis of an issue as well students embarking on research projects will find introductions to relevant theory and empirical evidence. And economists seeking to learn about extensions of analysis into new areas or about new approaches will benefit from chapters that introduce cutting-edge topics. To make the book accessible to undergraduate students, models have been presented only in graphical format (minimal calculus) and empirical evidence has been summarized in ways that do not require much background in statistics or econometrics. It is thereby hoped that chapters will provide both crucial information and inspiration in a non-threatening, highly readable format.

Economic Evaluation of Road Investment Proposals

Economic Evaluation of Road Investment Proposals PDF Author: Dimitris Tsolakis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description


Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges and Transit

Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges and Transit PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bridges
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description


Public Roads

Public Roads PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Highway engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description