Benefit-Cost Analysis of Variable Pricing Projects: SR-91 Express Lanes
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VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 3
Abstract
Researchers identified a methodology for obtaining the incremental societal costs and benefits for a variable pricing project and applied that methodology to the State Route 91 (SR-91) Express Lanes in California. This is the longest running variable pricing project in the United States and, as such, it provided useful historical data and trends upon which to estimate benefits and costs. This analysis found that the incremental societal benefits of the SR-91 Express Lanes exceeded costs for the time period considered. A companion paper that examines the benefits and costs of the QuickRide high occupancy/toll lane program found similar results. However, the magnitudes of the differences in benefits and costs were dramatically different for the two projects, indicative of their relative sizes and the numbers of travelers impacted. On SR-91, tens of thousands of travelers were impacted on a daily basis where QuickRide’s impact was limited to approximately 400 travelers per day. Interestingly, the benefit-cost ratios of the two projects were similar, both between 1.5 and 1.7.
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Acknowledgments
The writers would like to thank the California Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration’s Value Pricing Program for their support of this research. Additionally, the writers acknowledge the roles of the California Private Transportation Company and the Orange County Transportation Authority for their substantial cooperation in this research. Additional thanks to Doug Lee and two anonymous reviewers for examining an earlier version of this paper. However, any errors and omissions are entirely the fault of the writers.
References
Burris, M. W., and Sullivan, E. C. (2006). “Benefit-cost analysis of variable pricing projects: QuickRide HOT lanes.” J. Transp. Eng., 132(3), 183–190.
Lee, D. B., Jr. (2002). “Demand elasticities for highway travel. Appendix B.” HERS-ST V2.0: Highway Economic Requirements System-State Version Technical Report (Draft). United States Federal Highway Administration, USDOT, ⟨http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/hersindex.htm⟩.
Sullivan, E. (2000). Continuation study to evaluate the impacts of the SR-91 value-priced express lanes: Final report, Available on-line at ⟨http://ceenve.calpoly.edu/sullivan/SR91/final-rpt/FinalRep2000.pdf⟩ (Dec. 12, 2002).
Yan, J., Small, K. A., and Sullivan, E. C. (2002). “Choice models of route, occupancy, and time of day with value-priced tolls.” Transportation Research Record 1812, Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Science, Washington, D.C., 69–77.
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© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 12, 2004
Accepted: May 4, 2005
Published online: Mar 1, 2006
Published in print: Mar 2006
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