The State and Local Policy Program of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council, has studied value pricing since 1994. These partners were awarded a grant by the Federal Highway Administration in Fall 1999 to continue this work. This project included major components of both national outreach and continuing efforts to develop political support for value pricing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. This report summarizes the major activities that took place as part of this project, and includes as appendices, the major documents that were produced. These include three papers that were presented at the Transportation Research Board, a major pilot project proposal, and some other documents that were used locally.
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.
This research project sought to determine whether high-population density or some other aggregate land use characteristic can be used to create beneficial effects on travel behavior at the level of the entire urbanized area. The research also looked at gaining a better understanding of the reasons for variations in travel behavior across large U.S. cities. This research involved a comprehensive analysis, considering an unusually large number of factors. Researchers also developed a number of ways to describe aggregate "macro" land use in an urbanized area specifically for this study. The study found that land use, at the aggregate level studied in this project, is not a major leverage point in determining overall population travel choices. Much policy seems to be based on the belief that relatively small changes to land use will have a big impact on travel choices. The findings here imply just the opposite - that even very big, widespread differences in land use have very little impact on travel behavior, in good ways or in bad ways.
