A Methodology for Making a Quantitative Assessment of Passenger Transportation Alternatives.

摘要

This report presents methodologies for assessing alternative passenger transportation schemes quantitatively on the basis of criteria related to energy conservation, air quality, commuter costs, and land use. The purpose of the research has been to demonstrate the feasibility of applying quantitative assessment procedures for evaluating transportation options, with the results to serve as a blueprint for possibly more general application in other communities using similar criteria under similar conditions. Two basic approaches to assessment are addressed. A manual procedure produces estimates of fuel consumption, pollutant emission (carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons), and carbon monoxide concentration, commute costs, and land use for each link of a road network used by commuters. Per-vehicle factors, developed from a one-time baseline analysis, enable alternative commute options to be assessed on a relative basis in terms of change in passenger car volume on the commute network. Input to the procedure consists of road network physical and operational traffic characteristics during the peak commute hours of the baseline year, traffic volume changes associated with various alternatives, meteorological conditions likely to result in higher-than-average pollutant concentrations and per-person costs for each mode of travel and existing land-use characteristics. As an alternative approach to the manual assessment process, a computerized version is also developed. The report concludes that principal advantages in computerization are the ability to handle more complex and repetitive analysis problems and the avoidance of errors in algorithmic calculations.