Transportation System Intervention (Stimuli)

Synonymous to the words and a stimulus may

be defined as agent that directly influences the operation of a
system or part and may be due to a deliberate physical or policy
intervention by the agency or to the external environment

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Transportation Intervention Impacts

The identification of the various types and levels of impacts arising
from a stimulus is a key aspect of transportation systems evaluation
and decision-making
Given the multiplicity of stakeholders in the transportation
development process and the often forceful convictions of such parties,
it is vital that all possible impact types be duly considered.
Example: Construction of Rawalpindi Bypass:
road users (by decreasing their travel time)
the highway agency (new road maintenance)
persons living near vicinity (noise pollution source)
travelers on the network (by offering them new travel choices)

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Transportation Intervention Impacts Categories & Types
CATEGORY OF IMPACT
Environmental Impacts
Economic Efficiency Impacts
Economic Development
Impacts
Legal Impacts
Socio-cultural Impacts
IMPACT TYPES
Facility Condition
Travel Time
Vehicle Operating Cost
Accessibility, Mobility, and Congestion
Safety
Intermodal Movement Efficiency
Land-use Patterns (including Urbanization)
Risk and Vulnerability
Air Quality
Water Resources
Noise
Wetlands and Ecology
Aesthetics
Initial Costs
Life-cycle Cost/Benefits
Benefit Cost Ratio
Net Present Value
Employment
Number of Business Establishments
Gross Domestic Product
Regional Economy
International Trade
Tort Liability Exposure 41
Quality of Life

Transportation Intervention Impact Evaluation

Scope/Dimension
It is useful for the analyst to identify the dimensions of the evaluation,
as it would help guide the scope of the study and to identify the
appropriate performance measures to be considered in the evaluation
DIMENSION (SCOPE) LEVELS
Users
Affected Entities Non-Users
Community
Agency
Project
Geographical Scope of Corridor
Impacts Regional
National/International
Short Term
Temporal Scope of Impacts Medium Term
Long Term
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 Transportation Intervention Impact Evaluation
Scope/Dimension
Geographical Scope of Impacts

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Other ways to Categorize Transportation

Intervention Impacts
Direct vs. Indirect

Tangible vs. Intangible

Real vs. Pecuniary

Internal vs. External

Cumulative vs. Incremental

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 Other ways to Categorize Transportation
Intervention Impacts
Direct vs. Indirect:
Direct benefits and costs are directly related to the goals and objectives
of the transportation stimulus and directly affect the road users and the
agency
Indirect impacts are generally - of the action and are
experienced by society as a whole.
Speed increased on Motorway by 10 Km/hr: Major objective to enhance
mobility (a direct impact), but may result in indirect impacts such as
increased fuel use or increased frequency or severity of crashes.

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Other ways to Categorize Transportation

Intervention Impacts
Tangible vs. Intangible:
Tangible benefits and costs can be measured in monetary terms
Urban Highway Rehabilitation and Up gradation
Tangible: construction cost and increase in business sales
Intangible impacts:
Aesthetic appeal of a rehabilitated urban highway
Increased security due to transit video surveillance (IF ?)

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 Other ways to Categorize Transportation
Intervention Impacts
Real vs. Pecuniary (pi-ku-na-rey)Impacts:
Real costs or benefits: Some utility that is completely lost to (gained
from) the world
Pecuniary costs or benefits: some utility that is related only to the
movement of money around the economy.
Real costs represent a subtraction from community welfare. An
example is the cost of fatal crashes on the streets of a city
Example Pecuniary Benefits: is the increase in business relocations to a
city due to improved transportation infrastructure. This would be at the
expense of other competing cities from which the businesses have
relocated, thus there is no net welfare gain for the region 47

Other ways to Categorize Transportation

Intervention Impacts

Internal vs. External Impacts:

For jurisdictional and administrative reasons, it may be worthwhile to
consider whether system impacts are internal or external to the study area
or analysis period defined at the initial stages of the evaluation procedure
For example, improvement in air quality due to transportation
improvements in a region may benefit another region located in a
downwind direction.

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 Other ways to Categorize Transportation
Intervention Impacts
Cumulative vs. Incremental Impacts:
Cumulative costs or benefits refer to the overall costs and benefits from
a pre-identified initial time frame and include the impacts of the
transportation stimuli.
On the other hand, incremental costs and benefits are those impacts
associated only with the transportation stimuli and are determined as
the total impact after the stimuli less the total impact before
application of the stimuli.

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Transportation Decision Making

Decision
Selecting a Course of Action in Committing Resources
Purposeful Choice of One from Several Alternatives
An Evaluation Process Must Have a Clear Definition of Goals
and Objectives

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ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PDP AND BASIC ELEMENTS
OF EVALUATION
Each phase of the PDP requires evaluation of alternative actions so that
the best decision can be made to address the requirements of that
phase.
The most visible phase that involves explicit evaluation of alternatives
is the systems planning phase, where it is sought to decide whether or
not to undertake a project.
The next common phases are those for systems site selection and
systems design.
The most common evaluation criterion that has traditionally been used
for all phases is economic analysis
In recent times, there are increasing calls to include system
effectiveness and equity evaluation criteria in decision making
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ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PDP AND BASIC ELEMENTS

OF EVALUATION
Any evaluation process, also need to investigate what-if scenarios
Since transportation systems are often characterized by significant risk
and uncertainty - sensitivity analysis should be for various levels of
factors, such as system use (e.g., traffic volumes) and economic climate
(e.g., interest rates), and should help reveal trade-offs between
competing objectives.
Due to multiplicity of stakeholders, another important role of
evaluation is consensus building
Performance measures for decision making are typically derived from
conflicting interests and considerations
Evaluation can therefore generate an impartial solution that yields the
highest while incurring the least possible to all parties
affected. 52

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 THE PROCESS OF TRANSPORTATION PROJECT
DEVELOPMENT
The Project Development Process

For proposed projects only For existing and

proposed projects

A transportation project development process (PDP) can be

defined as the sequence of activities related to the planning,
design, construction, management, operation, and evaluation of
transportation facilities 53

ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PDP AND BASIC ELEMENTS

OF EVALUATION
Goal, Objective and Performance Measure
Goal: An overall requirement of a system, such as system preservation
and safety.
Objective: Specific statement of a goal, such as system condition for the
goal of system preservation, and reduced fatal crash rates for the goal of
safety enhancement.
Performance Measure: A very specific physical or operational aspect of
a transportation facility which is sought to be addressed directly or
indirectly by an intervention.

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ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PDP AND BASIC ELEMENTS
OF EVALUATION
Each overall goal of a transportation intervention consists of several
goals
Each goal consists of several objectives. Then each objective consists of
several specific performance measures.
The choice of any particular evaluation parameter depends on the
decision-maker, the decision involved, and the available alternative
actions that can be undertaken.
In the course of evaluation, the relative and absolute assessment of
the worth of a particular course of action is debated at length
How should worth be measured?
What unit of measure should be used?

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ROLE OF EVALUATION IN PDP AND BASIC ELEMENTS

OF EVALUATION
The worth of a project differs for different stakeholders.
The challenge here is to bring to a common and commensurate scale,
the various aspects of worth and identifying the tradeoff relationships
that exist between them.
For example, a proposed road may enhance accessibility but may
involve destruction of some natural habitats. The question then would
be how much ecological damage can be to a certain level
of accessibility.
After all possible courses of action have been screened for their
appropriateness, adequacy, and feasibility for implementation, the
resulting feasible courses of action are defined as alternatives
The alternatives are evaluated on the basis of the three : Efficiency,
Effectiveness and Equity 56

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 Basic Elements of Evaluation: Overall Goals
Efficiency: indicates the relative monetary value of the return from a
project with respect to the required investment. Efficiency involves
economic analyses and its accompanying concepts of life-cycle agency,
and user costing.
Effectiveness: represents the degree to which an alternative is
expected to accomplish the tasks, or, in other words, just how well it
attains the objectives specified. Effectiveness can include both
monetary and non-monetary or non-quantifiable benefits and costs,
such as social well being and aesthetic appeal.
Equity: can be measured in terms of both social and geographical
equity in the distribution of both costs and benefits related to an
alternative.

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Reasons for Evaluation

Assessment of proposed investments

Special transportation development programs

Fulfillment of regulatory mandate

Post implementation evaluation

Public education

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 Procedure for Transportation System Evaluation
1. Identify the Evaluation Subject
2. Identify Concerns of the Parties Concerned
3. Define Goals and Objectives
4. Establish Performance Measures
5. Establish Evaluation Scope
6. Recognize Legal and Administrative Requirements
7. Identify Possible courses of Action and Develop Feasible
Alternatives
Appropriateness (of Course of Action)
Adequacy (of Each Alternative)
Implementation Feasibility
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Procedure for Transportation System Evaluation

8. Estimate Agency Cost and User Costs
9. Estimate Other Benefits and Costs
10. Compare the Alternatives
1. Maximum benefit for a given level of investment
2. Least cost for a given level of effectiveness
3. Maximum cost effectiveness

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 Good Practices in Evaluation

1. Focus on the problem at hand

2. Relate alternatives to goals and objectives
3. Comprehensive list of appropriate criteria
4. Clear definition of objective function
5. Clear definition of constraints
6. Ability to carry out tradeoffs
7. Ability to carry out sensitivity analysis with respect to
key evaluation input variables
8. Clear presentation of evaluation process and results

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