Critical Analysis of Conventional Transport Economic Evaluation

Abstract

Transportation economic evaluation quantifies and monetizes transport project’s benefits and costs. It can significantly influence planning decisions. This report critically examines conventional transport economic evaluation. It integrates two different but overlapping perspectives: planners interested in comprehensive and multi-modal transport system analysis and economists interested in economic efficiency and economic development impacts. This analysis indicates that conventional transport economic evaluation fails to reflect basic economic principles including comprehensive and neutral analysis, economic efficiency, consumer sovereignty and integrated decision-making. It evaluates transport system performance based primarily on vehicle travel speeds and operating costs, and overlooks other accessibility factors such as the quality of other modes, transport network connectivity and geographic accessibility. It overlooks many significant impacts including parking costs, vehicle ownership costs, mobility for non-drivers, public fitness and health, and the incremental costs of induced vehicle travel. These omissions and biases tend to favor mobility over accessibility and automobile travel over other modes. Theoretical and empirical evidence indicate that these distortions often reduce economic productivity. More comprehensive and multi-modal evaluation can provide better guidance for transport planning and economic development.

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