This report, Economic Impact Analysis of Transit Investments: Guidebook for Practitioners, will be of interest to transportation economists and other analysts to assist them in selecting methods to conduct economic impact analyses of transit investments. Although the primary goal of public transportation investments is to improve mobility, economic benefits are also important to transit investment decisions. Consequently, it is important that reliable and defensible analytic methods are used to support decision-making. The primary objective of TCRP Project H-9, Economic Impact Analysis of Transit Investments: Guidebook for Practitioners, was to identify and describe a broad array of predictive and evaluative methods used to conduct economic impact analysis of public transportation investments. The research report focuses on 12 methods traditionally used to analyse three categories of transit-related economic impacts: • Generative Impacts produce net economic growth and benefits in a region such as travel time savings, increased regional employment and income, improved environmental quality, and increased job accessibility. This is the only type of impact that results in a net economic gain to society at large. • Redistributive Impacts account for locational shifts in economic activity within a region such that land development, employment, and, therefore, income occur in a transit corridor or around a transit stop, rather than being dispersed throughout a region. • Transfer Impacts involve the conveyance or transfer of moneys from one entity to another such as the employment stimulated by the construction and operation of a transit system financed through public funds, joint development income, and property tax income from development redistributed to a transit corridor. The report succinctly presents similar information for the 12 evaluation methods including: a brief description of each method; when each should be used; the impacts that each measures; its advantages and disadvantages; the data sources; an example; complementary methods; and a score card on the performance of each method. Methods used to analyse generative impacts are presented first, followed by methods to analyse redistributive and transfer impacts. The latter two tend to be less data intensive, less sophisticated, and more qualitative than the former. Although each method is described separately, the report clearly states that they are typically used in combination to enhance the overall economic analysis. Having introduced and described 12 evaluation methods traditionally used in public transportation economic analysis, the report then provides guidance for selecting methods and discusses critical issues that affect the selection of evaluation methods. The report goes on to suggest criteria for evaluating and presenting the results of an economic impact analysis after the analysis is completed. These sections include very practical suggestions that should assist analysts to improve the clarity and usefulness of their findings. The final section of the report discusses two methods—not used extensively in traditional economic analysis of transit investments—to analyse the economic impacts associated with reduced parking requirements and transit-induced accessibility and agglomeration of development. (A)
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