Transportation improvement alternatives on the US 50 Southwest Freeway corridor are evaluated from the full-cost, life-cycle perspective for the Houston/Galveston Area Council (HGAC). The alternatives involve facility improvements as well as vehicle occupancy improvements. Findings suggest that the current facility will not be able to service the projected peak-hour traffic demand; and after running MODECOST - a computer model based on the full-cost analysis concept, developed by the authors - the results showed that travelers bore a significant amount of external costs, including congestion costs and air pollution costs. The annual life-cycle cost savings from the reduction of external costs and users/agency costs can more than offset the cost of initial investiment for expansion of the current facility. This case study shows that in many instances, external costs and user/agency costs are more relevant than the initial capital investment in the facility. Expanding the current facility to add general purpose lanes or HOV lanes to accommodate ride-sharing and special transit service reduces the external costs and user/agency costs, which in turn reduces the system life-cycle costs of the facility.
Case Study Application of a Computerized Full-Cost Analysis Model for Evaluating Urban Passenger Transportation
1998
26 pages
Report
No indication
English
Transportation & Traffic Planning , Transportation , Urban transportation , Passenger transportation , Life cycle costs , Economic analysis , Transportation planning , Case studies , Costs , Computer models , Traffic congestion costs , Air pollution costs , Investments , Facility costs , User costs , External costs
Full-Cost Analysis of Urban Passenger Transportation
NTIS | 1996
|Evaluating the Full Costs of Urban Passenger Transportation
Online Contents | 1996
|Evaluating the Full Costs of Urban Passenger Transportation
Transportation Research Record | 1996
|Evaluating the Full Costs of Urban Passenger Transportation
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1996
|Evaluating the Full Costs of Urban Passenger Transportation
Transportation Research Record | 1996
|