Over the past 15 years, many public transport agencies in the U.S. have successfully deployed intelligent transport systems (ITS) that have resulted in increased operational efficiency, and improved customer information and service. While a limited number of agencies conducted detailed cost-benefit analyses during the planning stages to determine the eventual return on investment (ROI), most agencies did not necessarily use the results of this "before" ROI analysis to develop the business case for procuring and deploying these technologies. While the state-of-the-art in technology applied to public transport and the methods used to determine the need for technology have improved markedly over those 15 years, the use of ROI techniques to determine the business case still has been very limited. Further, as funding becomes constrained after the initial ITS procurement and deployment, just a few public transport agencies conduct an after ROI analysis to determine if and when the investment will yield a return. The objectives of this paper and presentation are to: describe the techniques used to conduct the before cost-benefit/ROI analyses conducted by several U.S. agencies; describe the challenges associated with conducting before and after cost-benefit/ROI analyses; discuss the results of several cost/benefit analyses conducted in the US and abroad; and recommend approaches for U.S. agencies to conduct "before" and "after" ROI analyses based on experiences outside of the U.S.For the covering abstract see ITRD E134653.
Abstract