The costs and benefits of past transport research projects are investigated. The research projects examined include examples of reducing road construction and maintenance costs, saving accidents and cutting congestion. All costs and benefits are at 1992 prices and have been discounted forwards and compounded backwards to give current nett present values. Future benefits of research always have some uncertainty, and low, medium and high benefit scenarios are considered relative to a `base case'. The nett present value at 1992 prices, the ratio of present value to nett benefits and the internal rate of return are calculated for each scenario. The methodology is discussed as are the results together with comments on together with comments on individual projects. The sensitivity of the assumptions particularly with respect to their impact on the nett benefit is discussed at length. Finally, details of each research project together with a spreadsheet are given in a set of appendices. (A)
Abstract