By Nousheen Rahman, AICP
Each year, Forward Pinellas develops a list of priority transportation projects as part of its responsibilities as the Metropolitan Planning Organization. The priority list includes projects for all modes of travel, and projects are ranked through a scoring system that considers connectivity, project readiness, and balancing the needs of all users in our transportation system. With competing transportation needs in an evolving Pinellas County, an important question remains: How much benefit does a project deliver relative to its costs?
Our Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) Tool helps answer that question by translating our transportation priorities into measurable economic benefits. The tool helps to quantify the benefits of investments in our transportation network and provides a measurable value in our prioritization process. The development of this tool is a result of a proactive approach to respond to increased emphasis on benefit-cost analysis in programs and grants administered by the federal government, and as such follows guidance for benefit-cost analysis provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Additionally, the tool is a result of a partnership of the Sun Coast Transportation Planning Alliance (SCTPA), which is comprised of the six MPOs of the Tampa Bay Region.
Quantifying Transportation Benefits
The cost of a transportation project can be clearly broken into various categories such as its planning, design, and construction. The value of its benefits can be more difficult to quantify.
Based on USDOT guidance, the monetized value of a crash resulting in a serious injury is estimated at $1.3 million. The question then follows as to what the value is of improving safety conditions, resulting in decreased crashes. How much time can travelers save when a transportation improvement relieves congestion? What are the benefits of new or improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities or enhanced transit service? These benefits matter to the people who live, work, and travel in Pinellas County. While each transportation priority addresses various needs, the BCA Tool provides a quantifiable framework to evaluate and compare benefits across projects in monetary terms.
Putting Transportation Benefits into Perspective
By quantifying project benefits, the BCA Tool provides a measurable way to compare transportation investments. The BCA Tool can also help identify which benefits contribute most to a project’s overall value. This is especially useful for projects that address multiple modes of transportation, such as roadway capacity improvements that may include bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
The BCA Tool quantifies several types of benefits, including:
- Safety: Measured as the dollar value of each crash, injury, and fatality prevented as a result of a safety improvement
- Travel Time Savings: Measured as the dollar value of each hour saved per person as a result of a transportation improvement that reduces travel time. This can result from projects improving turning movements or signal timing.
- Active Transportation: Measured as the dollar value of benefits derived from new or improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities, including improved safety conditions, health benefits, and connectivity.
- Transit Amenity: Measured as the dollar value of benefits provided by transit amenities, such as seating, weather protection, and real-time bus information, to current or future transit riders.
- Forward Pinellas’s BCA Tool can also be used to run a benefit-cost analysis for federal, state, or other grant applications which require a BCA for proposed projects. To inquire, please contact Nousheen Rahman (nrahman@forwardpinellas.org).
A Holistic Prioritization Process
Ultimately, quantifying benefits helps connect transportation priorities to their intended outcomes: providing transportation options and economic opportunity through a safer, more connected network. Community needs and project readiness remain important factors in the decision-making process. By pairing these considerations with a quantitative assessment of project costs and benefits, Forward Pinellas can make an informed evaluation of transportation projects and better communicate the value of transportation investments in Pinellas County.
The BCA Tool is in the process of being incorporated into a larger regional project prioritization tool as part of the Tampa Bay Transportation Project Prioritization Pilot Program, which will take into account existing considerations of project readiness and community needs, but also support and enhance the prioritization process with quantitative analysis.
To learn more about our Economic and Quantitative Analysis Tools, click here.
To learn more about the Tampa Bay Transportation Project Prioritization Pilot Program, click here.
