High inflation rates have caused costs for contruction, maintenance, and operation of transportation facilities to increase more rapidly than revenues. To operate within available funding limits, many states have been forced to reduce the magnitude of programs and levels of service. This report of the Transportation Research Board focuses on use of needs studies as a basis for developing programs within constrained financial resources. Guidance and procedures are provided for the following aspects of transportation needs studies and financial constraints: (a) techniques for estimating needs; (b) criteria for developing program packages; (c) considerations in making tradeoffs among geographical, modal, political, and other options; (d) techniques for documenting funding deficiencies to increase awareness of the public and political decision makers; (e) identification of potential sources of additional revenue; and (f) methods of ""downscoping"" proposed projects. (Author)
Abstract