Statewide Assessment of Broader Economic Benefits from Transportation Investment: Integration of Travel Demand Models and SHRP 2 Project C11 Tools in Maryland

Abstract

Project selection and prioritization are of utmost importance to federal, state, and local agencies and should be performed cautiously on the basis of expected project costs and benefits. Informed resource allocation decisions with respect to project candidates not only maximize public investment benefits but create economic opportunities and ultimately improve quality of life. With the use of tools readily available to most state agencies (e.g., travel demand models), along with the open-source SHRP 2 Project C11 tools, planners and engineers can proceed with informed statewide assessments of investment projects that yield benefits in market accessibility, travel time reliability, and connectivity. In this study, a seven-level framework was proposed to integrate a travel demand model with the SHRP 2 Project C11 tools and to showcase its functionality with the Intercounty Connector (ICC) MD-200 in Maryland as a case study. After a customized version of the SHRP 2 tools was developed in which Maryland-specific values were used in lieu of the default SHRP 2 parameters, the results suggested that, in the year 2030, a total increase of approximately 1% in buyer–supplier market accessibility would be achieved in the counties that surrounded the ICC as a result of the new construction. Also, all three corridors parallel to the ICC, which served similar origin–destination pairs, would experience a decrease in recurring and incident delays attributable to the ICC. In dollar terms, the value of the total annual benefits from the ICC construction in the year 2030 would amount to approximately $200 million.