01340369

Component

The term "transportation efficiency" is used in many ways and in many contexts. Efficiency describes relationships between inputs into a system and outputs from that system. It also describes relationships between costs and benefits. One common shortcoming of many transportation efficiency studies is their tendency to focus on one disciplinary perspective. To explore a broader approach to transportation efficiency, we studied transportation efficiency in 10 states in the United States with respect to natural, infrastructural and human capital, and explore the impact of valuing these three capitals relative to each other using a weighting scheme commonly used in multiple criteria analysis. Each capital is represented by four variables collected or estimated for each state in the year 2000. Five weighting scenarios are compared, including three where one of the three capitals is given 100 percent weight, one where all three capitals are weighted equally, and one where weightings are extracted from the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which was in force during the year 2000. We anticipated start differences between scenarios where natural, infrastructural and human capital were weighted 100% and those scenarios where capitals were weighted equally and those where TEA-21 weights were used, but this was not always the case. We also noted a high degree of correlation between TEA-21 weights and equal weights.

01329018

11-1428

English

16p

2011

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (2) ; References (64) ; Tables (2)

Benefit cost analysis; Economic capital; Economic efficiency; Externalities; Infrastructure; Multiple criteria decision making; Natural resources; States; Variables; Weighting

Economics; Finance; Highways; I10: Economics and Administration

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-1428

TRIS, TRB

Feb 17 2011 5:48PM