Abstract
FOR PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL REASONS IT IS DESIRABLE TO MEASURE BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH ELEMENTS OF A ROAD INVESTMENT STRATEGY. PARTIAL METHODS OF BENEFIT EVALUATION ARE COMPARED TO FULL TRANSPORTATION STUDY APPRAISAL AND SUMS OF BENEFITS TO INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS ARE COMPARED TO AN OVERALL APPRAISAL OF THE STRATEGY THEY COMPOSE. THE RESULTS SHOW THAT STRATEGY RATES OF RETURN MASK CONSIDERABLE VARIATIONS IN THE RETURNS TO ITS COMPONENTS. THE DIFFERENT ASSUMPTIONS ON THE VARIABILITY OF TRAVEL DEMAND EMBEDDED IN PARTIAL AND MORE GENERAL EVALUATION METHODS GENERATE BENEFIT DIFFERENCES WHICH ARE CONSISTENT WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF AN INCREASING COST SYSTEM.(Author/publisher).