This report provides a spreadsheet model for calculating the costs of operating cars and trucks, specifically for use in planning highway projects which change the conditions under which people drive. The specific costs addressed are: fuel consumption, routine maintenance, tires, repairs, and some depreciation. This approach to estimating costs is innovative in several ways. The authors have developed a way to determine the marginal costs of actually driving exclusive of the fixed costs of ownership. They also offer methods for adjusting the costs for different conditions and guidance on how to adjust costs in the future. The authors conclude that in a case of highway driving on smooth pavement at $1.50 per gallon for gasoline, personal vehicles average 17.1 cents per mile to operate and trucks average 43.4 cents per mile. City driving conditions increase these costs by 3.9 and 9.5 cents per gallon, respectively.
The purpose of this project was to understand why public involvement in transportation project planning goes badly, and to determine how the process could be modified to reduce negative outcomes. The project examines these issues by studying public involvement efforts. The project examines how the potential for conflict can be anticipated. A local project had characteristics of having been well run with good intentions, of having been plagued by conflict, and of being documented in a neighborhood newspaper. It was the primary source of reasons why public involvement can turn out badly and was contrasted with three other projects that were more successful with their public involvement. A new model is proposed in this report. The model proposes that conflict can derive from any or all of five independent dimensions, each with its own level of intensity or intractability: size and distribution of local benefits or costs; disagreement about the nature and importance of local impacts; ability to accurately define and engage relevant stakeholders; perceived legitimacy of the project; and degree of ideological issues. There are two key conclusions. First, situations with serious conflict are different from the typical public involvement effort; they require different tools and tactics built around the specific nature of the conflict. The second major finding is that "conflict" is not a standard problem to answer with a single solution, but each conflict does not have to be approached individually.
