Prioritizing Proposed Transportation Improvements: Methods,Evaluation,and Research Needs

Abstract

Since the costs of proposed transportation projects typically exceed available funding, the process by which projects are selected and prioritized for development is scrutinized by a wide variety of stakeholders. The U.S. Congress and state legislatures are increasingly involved in selecting projects, and thus some projects do not evolve from the transportation planning process. Oversight panels, special interest groups, and the public are applying pressure to clarify the process by which proposed projects are prioritized and to minimize the impact of politics. A rational tool that lays out a clear procedure can assist decision makers in selecting and prioritizing potential improvements, make the process more transparent, and strengthen the link between planning and programming. Several such tools have been proposed, and many state and local transportation agencies are using some of them. These instruments vary widely in objectivity, the factors considered in evaluating potential transportation improvements, and output formats. The role they play in programming decisions also varies, but their use makes available more information to interested parties, including those vested with the authority to make decisions about transportation programming.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Governor’s Commission on Transportation Policy. Second Interim Report. Richmond, Va., Sept. 2000.

Conference Proceedings 20: Refocusing Transportation Planning for the 21st Century. TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2000.

Ohio Department of Transportation. http://www.dot.state.oh.us/trac/tracpolicy.htm. Accessed November 8, 2000.

Delaware Department of Transportation. Capital Transportation Improvement Program, FY 2001–2006. Dover, 2000.

City of Sacramento, Department of Public Works. Transportation Programming Guide. Sacramento, Calif., 2000.

Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. Hampton Roads Transportation Improvement Program: Project Selection Process. Chesapeake, Va., 1998.

Blake

S. E.

, Pisarski

A. E.

, and Roth

Taking the Politics Out of Planning. Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Springfield, Va., 1999.

Frohwein

H. I.

, Lambert

J. H.

, Haimes

Y. Y.

, and Schiff

L. A.

Multicriteria Framework to Aid Comparison of Roadway Improvement Projects. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Vol. 125, No. 3, 1999, pp. 224–230.

Baker

J. A.

, and Lambert

J. H.

Lessons from Using Multiple Factors to Select Among Diverse Highway Improvements. Presented at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2000.

10.

Shaffer

J. L.

, and Fricker

J. D.

Simplified Procedures for Determining County Road Project Priorities. In Transportation Research Record 1124, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1987, pp. 8–16.

11.

Harness

M. D.

, and Sinha

K. C.

Setting Priorities of Highway Projects by Successive Subsetting Technique. In Transportation Research Record 955, TRB, Washington, D.C., 1984, pp. 35–40.