Law enforcement costs on urban roads is a seldom-considered public cost, although it averages two to three times higher than maintenance costs. When law enforcement costs are considered, a typical value used by planners is about $5, 000 per lane-mile. This value may beadequate for rural roads, but it significantly underestimates the costs on urban roads, as demonstrated through the study cases described in this paper. Law enforcement costs are not included in the costcalculation of urban roads due to the lack of an effective and simple procedure. This paper presents a "quick approach" for estimating law enforcement costs on urban roads, a step-by-step procedure that is both simple to understand and easy to apply. All the needed data can be obtained through a few telephone calls. The calculations are quickly performed on templates provided in this paper. The quick approach provides valid answers because it takes into account all the important parameters related to law enforcement activities. It is also based on sound, justifiable logic and contains few assumptions. The quick approach gives an average value for law enforcement cost perlane-mile of the city highway network. However, this value could beadjusted to represent the costs on a specific urban road. This paper appears in transportation research record no. 1262, Planning, management and economic analysis 1990.
Abstract