Analysing Transportation Options in New York City

Meet the BTA (35 page pdf slideshow, Jul. 22, 2009)

Also discussed here: Transit Plans from Kheel Team (Nurture New York's Nature - NNYN)

And here: Balanced Transportation Analyzer (2.8 MByte Excel 2007 spreadsheet)

Today’s review is of a sophisticated spreadsheet developed by Charles Komanoff to model the impact of various congestion pricing schemes in New York City with time varying rates on such outputs as revenue gains and losses (as shown below), impact on traffic volumes, vehicle emissions, speeds and many other variables. In carrying out the calculations in iterative fashion, many policy results may be assessed. The technique shows promise to be exported for use in other cities if the basic input data are provided. Note that the spreadsheet file referenced will execute only in post 2007 versions of Excel.



Key Quotes:

“Balanced Transportation Analyzer -A spreadsheet model to assess benefits, impacts and costs of time-variable traffic and transit pricing in New York City”

” Inputs:

• Baseline motor vehicle data; Cordon entries; Time of day and Day of week; Cordon and non-cordon speeds
• Baseline subway and bus data: Ridership and revenue;Time of day and Day of week
• Elasticities (price and time sensitivities)”

“Outputs:

• Agency revenues
• Motor vehicle travel speeds
• Time savings to vehicle users (hours and dollar equivalents)
• VMT and transit ridership
• Emissions and other vehicle externalities”

Uses:

• “Traffic pricing essential to improving vehicle travel
• Traffic pricing a revenue source for transit
• Time-varied pricing can: Maximize time savings, Provide choice, Ease subway crowding”

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