The economics of potential reduction of the rural road system in Kansas.
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2011-11-01
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Edition:Final report; June 2009¿Sept. 2010.
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Abstract:Benefit–cost analysis was used to examine the question of road closure in the three counties. The cost of road
closure is the additional travel cost of rural residents due to more circuitous routing to their destinations. The benefit is
the avoided maintenance costs of roads removed from the county network.
In three counties, 10 road segments were selected as potential candidates for simulated closure. This was done to
analyze the traffic impacts on alternative roads near the road segments being considered for simulated closure.
Selection of the road segments was based on many factors, but the most important criterion was the traffic volume on
these roads. TransCAD maps and KDOT traffic counts were used to identify candidate roads for simulated closure.
Single-access roads (the only road between a specific origin and destination) were not considered for simulated
closure.
• A major conclusion is that rural counties will be able to save money by closing some relatively lowvolume
roads and redirecting the savings toward increasing the quality of the other county roads.
• Counties with relatively extensive road systems (miles of road per square mile) and relatively high
population density (i.e., Brown County) are less likely to realize savings from road closure.
• Counties with less extensive road systems and relatively low population density (i.e., Thomas County) are
more likely to realize significant savings from closure of relatively low-volume roads.
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