A Benefit-Cost Evaluation of Smart Transit Features at Small Scale Transit Operations

Abstract

This study evaluates the benefits and costs of smart transit technologies at San Luis Obispo Transit, a small transit operation. In 2001, the California Department of Transportation test-deployed its new program entitled “Efficient Deployment of Advanced Public Transportation Systems (EDAPTS)”. The purpose of the field study was to make low-cost, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies readily available to small and medium size transit properties. The system developed applies digital communications links, open source designs, solar powered real-time arrival signs, and innovative data links to improve transit service and safety at a total investment of $150,000 (2007 dollars). An evaluation was undertaken in 2007 to determine the economic justification of the program and assess the case for commercialization. Benefit-cost analyses were conducted for 5-, 7-, and 10-year service lives of EDAPTS components using discount rates of 5%, 7% and 10%. A conservative analysis excluded consumer surplus as benefits and shows benefit-cost ratios of 3.7 to 6.1. With consumer surplus, the ratios range from 4.5 to 7.5. This indicates that $1 invested in EDAPTS resulted in nearly $4 of benefits to constituent groups. Since the benefit-cost ratios substantially exceed 1.0 in all cases, results confirm that EDAPTS provides an economically sound smart transit solution for small and medium size transit properties seeking low-cost easily deployed ITS solutions.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 3 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.