United States Department of Transportation
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User Benefits of Railroad Grade Separation in a Small Community: Practical Techniques for Applying Microbencost
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1999-01-01
[PDF-262.26 KB]
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TRIS Online Accession Number:00778501
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NTL Classification:NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Economics and Finance;NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Planning and Policy;NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Safety;NTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-Rail Planning and Policy;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Highway Safety;NTL-OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLS-Congestion;
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Abstract:As transportation system elements of this country continue to evolve, issues
that may have seemed foregone to a prior generation have crystallized into
topics requiring substantive review. Witness, for example, the growth in both
freight railroad and vehicular traffic throughout the United States over the
past 15 years. The product of their interaction at grade crossings is a mixture
of congestion and safety concerns. The challenge for today's
transportation professionals is how to monetize these concerns when reviewing
project-specific issues. One tool for assesing economic impacts during the
project development process is benefit-cost analysis. This paper presents a
framework for estimating roadway user benefits and costs associated with
railroad grade separation in a small community by applying the software and
methodology of MicroBENCOST. In addition, a specific application of this
approach in the St. Cloud, Minnesota metropolitan area (population 100,000) has
been included.
MicroBENCOST was released by the Texas Transportation Institute in 1993 to
conduct benefit-cost analysis for highway improvemetns. A brief discussion of
the software's current release and status has been included. Like most computer
software, MicroBENCOST provides the user with a number of default values. This
paper identifies defaults and other data that require the use of project-
specific inputs. It also discusses practical techniques to focus productive,
yet low cost, data collection prior to analysis. Of greatest importance when
considering railroad grade crossing issues are railroad operation values such
as train distribution, length, and speed. A methodology for collecting and
summarizing this data is described in order to assist others with this task.
Once the necessary data has been collected, MicroBENCOST can be used to develop
an input file and test a variety of alternatives. To demonstrate application of
this framework, a case study involving a potential grade separation is described.
Since there was some uncertainty associated with the forecasted data, a
sensitivity analysis was conducted. Tips and traps associated with the use of
this software are also presented.
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