Economic principles involved in conducting benefit-cost analysisof a transportation investment have been discussed at length in theliterature, but there are few articles that provide a synthesis of the main components of the analysis and evaluation process. First, an attempt will be made to distinguish between transportation user benefits and economic impacts from a transportation improvement. Although some of the economic impacts are intuitively recognized, they have not been clearly identified or completely recognized. As a result, the evaluation process has been less than complete. A system for classifying the economic impacts and methods of measuring these impacts are suggested for discussion. Second, a framework for the evaluation of the improvement costs, transportation user benefits, and economic impacts from a transportation improvement is presented. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1274, Transportation and economic development 1990: proceedings of a conference, williamsburg, virginia, november 5-8, 1989.
Abstract