Quantifying the Benefits of Context Sensitive Solutions (2009)

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TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2009 www.TRB.org N A T I O N A L C O O P E R A T I V E H I G H W A Y R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M NCHRP REPORT 642 Subject Areas Planning and Administration • Highway and Facility Design Quantifying the Benefits of Context Sensitive Solutions Nikiforos Stamatiadis Adam Kirk Don Hartman Theodore Hopwood Jerry Pigman UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY Lexington, KY Research sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. These problems are best studied through a coordinated program of cooperative research. In recognition of these needs, the highway administrators of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials initiated in 1962 an objective national highway research program employing modern scientific techniques. 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The members of the technical committee selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that performed the research, and, while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical committee, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical committee according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. 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CRP STAFF FOR NCHRP REPORT 642 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Edward T. Harrigan, Senior Program Officer Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Maria Crawford, Assistant Editor NCHRP PROJECT 15-32 PANEL Field of Design—Area of General Design R. Gregg Albright, California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, Sacramento, CA (Chair) Barbara Petrarca, Warwick, RI Margaret M. Barondess, Michigan DOT, Lansing, MI Scott Bradley, Minnesota DOT, St. Paul, MN Albert Brantley, Mississippi DOT, Jackson, MS Karl N. Kirker, Exeltech Consulting, Inc., Lacey, WA Effie Stallsmith, Federal Transit Administration, Washington, DC Norine M. Walker, Norine Walker and Associates, LLC, Alexandria, VA Keith Moore, FHWA Liaison Stephen F. Maher, TRB Liaison AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research reported herein was performed under NCHRP Project 15-32 by the Kentucky Transporta- tion Center at the University of Kentucky, Glatting-Jackson, Wilbur Smith Associates, and Bill Gulick. The University of Kentucky is the contractor for this study. In addition to the main authors, contribu- tions to the report were made by Glenn Bloomquist, Professor at the University of Kentucky; Krista Citron, graduate student at the University of Kentucky; Karen Campblin, Dan Burden, and Billy Hathaway of Glatting-Jackson; John Carr and John Mettille of Wilbur Smith Associates; and Bill Gulick. The authors would also like to acknowledge all members who participated in the survey and worked with the project team in providing the appropriate data. Participation from members of the Departments of Transportation as well as stakeholders involved in the respective projects in Arizona, Arkansas, Cali- fornia, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming is greatly appreciated. Finally, the contribution and guidance of the NCHRP Panel should be mentioned. Without their hard work and diligence in providing comments, this work would not have been completed. C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

This report presents guidelines for quantifying the benefits of applying the principles of Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) to transportation projects. The report will be of imme- diate interest to the staff of state and municipal agencies with responsibility for planning, programming, developing, and operating transportation projects of all types and sizes. As more organizations apply CSS principles, evidence continues to grow that measurable benefits result from this broadly informed and flexible approach to all phases of transporta- tion decision making. Involving stakeholders in decision making yields transportation solu- tions that balance environmental, engineering, community, mobility, funding, and safety needs with the minimum of delay and controversy. The strategic, appropriate application of CSS principles is expected to yield significant quantifiable benefits. However, evaluation of the benefits of transportation programs is often limited to those that are most easily measured, such as cost savings accrued from reduced travel times, emissions, environmental impacts, and operations. Such evaluations can produce an abundance of data that may address a particular mode, for example, tran- sit or highways, and specific, easily quantifiable aspects such as ridership, noise levels, wet- land impacts, and arterial capacity. Data on less readily quantifiable aspects are often lack- ing. Thus, the overall economic impacts of CSS, in terms of achieving value-added benefits and reducing costs and delays, are not well documented, despite their great potential value to agencies and stakeholders working to deliver real-world projects and advance the national implementation of CSS. The objective of this research was to quantify the benefits of the strategic, appropriate application of CSS principles in transportation planning, programming, project develop- ment, and operations. This objective was accomplished through the development of (1) rec- ommended guidelines for quantifying the benefits of applying CSS principles on a contin- uous basis in all aspects and stages of a transportation project; (2) reliable performance measures to gauge the principle-based, benefit-justified process and enable its continuous improvement; and (3) supporting commentary and training materials for state and munic- ipal transportation agencies to use in applying the guidelines to their own projects. The research was performed by the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. The report fully documents the identification of a wide range of CSS cases studies and the results of the forensic analyses of the case studies to support the development of a sound methodology to estimate specific benefits accruing from the application of a defined set of CSS principles. The report includes a separate, independent document providing specific guidelines for agencies wanting to continually, concurrently assess the benefits of applying the set of CSS principles to their own transportation projects. This guidelines document is under consid- eration for possible adoption by the AASHTO Highway Subcommittee on Design. F O R E W O R D By Edward T. Harrigan Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

This document, produced in fulfillment of NCHRP Project 15-32, “Context Sensitive Solutions: Quantification of the Benefits in Transportation,” consists of the following: • A final report, which presents information collected and analyzed as part of the study, including, in particular, identification of a wide range of context sensitive solutions (CSS) cases studies and the results of the forensic analyses of the case studies to support the development of a sound methodology to estimate specific benefits accruing from the application of a defined set of CSS principles; and • Guidelines for agencies wanting to continually and concurrently assess the benefits of applying the set of CSS principles to their own transportation projects. Chapter 5 of this final report describes the layout of the Guidelines. It serves as a bridge to the Guidelines, an introduction to their content, and a description of training materials available to state DOTs for use in training their staffs. P R E F A C E

C O N T E N T S 1 Summary 3 Chapter 1 Introduction and Research Approach 3 Problem Statement 3 Research Objectives and Approach 4 Organization of the Report 5 Chapter 2 Literature Synthesis 5 CSS Project Development 6 CSS Principles and Benefits 8 Performance Evaluation and Benefit Assessment 10 Summary 11 Chapter 3 Research Approach 11 Principles and Benefits 11 Case Study Selection Process 12 Data Collection 14 Data Analysis 16 Chapter 4 Findings 16 Principles 18 Principles and Benefits 19 Benefits 27 Metric Indicators 28 Case Studies Selected 28 Data Analysis 34 Summary 36 Chapter 5 Guidelines 36 Introduction 39 Layout 40 Chapter 6 Conclusions and Suggested Research 40 Conclusions 41 Future Research 43 References 44 Appendices A, B, C, D, and E G-1 Guidelines for Quantifying the Benefits of Context Sensitive Solutions