Advancing Active Transportation Project Evaluation

Dillon T. Fitch-Polse, Hossain Mohiuddin, Dan Willett, Trisalyn Nelson, Matthew Favetti and Kari Watkins

Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series from Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of active transportation projects in increasing active transportation in California. It also serves to validate the current methods of the California Active Transportation Benefit-Cost Tool. Using count and infrastructure data from the cities of Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, California, with updated models from the California Active Transportation Benefit-Cost Tool, the authors estimated project level changes in active transportation using two methods. The first method uses a direct demand modeled before and after bicycling and pedestrian volumes. The second method is an expected increase in bicycling and pedestrian volumes based on the project parameters and their effect sizes from the academic literature. Results show that, in general, both estimates are closely aligned. However, the results also indicate that for some projects, particularly those projects with greater change in walking and bicycling, the California Active Transportation Benefit-Cost Tool can diverge from the before-after estimate substantially at the project-level. Several suggestions for future research and improvements to the tool are made. View the NCST Project Webpage

Keywords: Social and Behavioral Sciences; Before and after studies; Benefit cost analysis; Bicycle counts; Bicycling; Nonmotorized transportation; Pedestrian counts; Transportation planning; Travel demand; Walking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac, nep-ppm and nep-tre
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