Economic evaluation (also called appraisal, assessment or analysis) refers to various methods to determine the value of a policy, program or project. It involves quantifying incremental (also called marginal) economic impacts (benefits and costs) to determine net benefits or net value (benefits minus costs), and the distribution (also called incidence) of these impacts. Economic evaluation is not limited to market impacts (which involve goods that are commonly traded in competitive markets), it can also incorporate non-market resources such as personal time, health and environmental quality. To perform Benefit-Cost Analysis it is necessary to monetize all relevant impacts. In recent years economists have developed techniques for monetizing non-market impacts, and some transportation agencies have adopted standardized values for travel time, crash damages and environmental impacts. Benefit-Cost Analysis is most applicable for evaluating proposed projects that meet the following criteria: (1) The potential project expenditure is significant enough to justify spending resources on forecasting, measuring and evaluating the expected benefits and impacts. (2) The project motivation is to improve the transportation system's efficiency at serving travel and access-related needs, rather than to meet some legal requirement or social goal. (3) Environmental or social impacts that are outside of the transportation system efficiency measurement are either: (a) negligible in magnitude, (b) measurable in ways that can be used within the benefit-cost framework, or (c) to be considered by some other form of project appraisal outside of the benefit-cost analysis. During the last few decades Benefit-Cost analysis has been widely used to evaluate transportation projects, and standardized methods have been developed, including software programs such as MicroBenCost and HDM-4 (CalTrans 2006; World Bank 2011). These are generally designed to evaluate a particular type of transport improvement, such as highways or transit service, and are generally inappropriate for comparing the net benefits of improvements to different modes or of transportation demand management strategies such as pricing reforms or commute trip reduction programs because they do not account for many significant impacts. For example, conventional benefit-cost models generally ignore parking facility costs, and therefore the parking cost savings that result when travelers shift from driving to alternative modes. Most models only account for changes in vehicle operating costs, but ignore vehicle ownership costs, and therefore the savings to consumers from improvements in alternative modes that allow households to reduce their vehicle ownership. Most include no factor for the social equity benefits that result from improving basic mobility for non-drivers, for example, from projects that improve affordable modes such as walking, cycling and public transport. It is therefore important that people who use these models and model results understand their limitations and biases. Benefit-Cost Analysis is neither necessary nor desirable to justify all transportation projects. It may not always be appropriate in the following cases:
It is also inappropriate to rely solely on Benefit-Cost Analysis in situations where there are special concerns that must also be considered outside of that analysis. Since benefit-cost analysis focuses on the comparison of total benefits and total costs in dollar terms, some particular concerns affecting a given project may be either hidden or missed within the calculation of total benefits and total costs. In some cases, the desirability of projects needs to be considered in terms of their effectiveness at reducing certain key objectives — such as air pollution reduction, creation of new jobs, or improving mobility for physically, economically and socially disadvantaged people. In such cases, cost-effectiveness analysis (which measures environmental or social benefits per dollar of transportation project spending) may be appropriate, either in addition to or instead of benefit-cost analysis. Information ResourcesCalTrans (2006), Benefit-Cost Models, Office of Transportation Economics, California Department of Transportation (www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/ote). Available at: www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/ote/benefit_cost/index.html. CTE (Center for Transportation and the Environment) (2008), Improved Methods For Assessing Social, Cultural, And Economic Effects Of Transportation Projects, NCHRP Project 08-36, Task 66, TRB (www.trb.org) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Available at: www.statewideplanning.org/_resources/234_NCHRP-8-36-66.pdf. CUTR (2007), Economics of Travel Demand Management: Comparative Cost Effectiveness and Public Investment, Center for Urban Transportation Research (www.nctr.usf.edu). Available at: www.nctr.usf.edu/pdf/77704.pdf DFID (2001), New Economists Guide: Appraisal Of Investments In Improved Rural Access, UK Department for International Development (www.transport-links.org). 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Todd Litman (2003 / 2005), “Measuring Transportation: Traffic, Mobility and Accessibility,” ITE Journal (www.ite.org), Vol. 73, No. 10, October 2003, pp. 28-32. Available at: www.vtpi.org/measure.pdf Todd Litman (2006), Comprehensive Transport Planning Framework: Best Practices For Evaluating All Options And Impacts, VTPI (www.vtpi.org). Available at: www.vtpi.org/comprehensive.pdf. Todd Litman (2008), Well Measured: Developing Indicators for Comprehensive and Sustainable Transport Planning, VTPI (www.vtpi.org); at www.vtpi.org/wellmeas.pdf. Summary published as “Developing Indicators For Comprehensive And Sustainable Transport Planning,” Transportation Research Record 2017, Transportation Research Board (www.trb.org), 2007, pp. 10-15; at www.vtpi.org/sus_tran_ind.pdf. Todd Litman (2008), Multi-Modal Transport Planning, Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org); at www.vtpi.org/multimodal_planning.pdf. 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