Assessment Of The Economic Impacts Of Rural Public Transportation

"TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 101: Toolkit for Rural Community Coordinated Transportation Services examines strategies and practices used to coordinate rural transportation services, and identifies model processes used for local coordination efforts in rural communities. A stand-alone executive summary of the report provides information, instructions, and lessons learned from rural communities that have implemented coordinated transportation services"--Publisher's description.

This synthesis report will be of interest to DOT administrators, supervisors, and staff, as well as to the consultants working with them in assessing the economic development impacts of existing or proposed transportation investments. Metropolitan Planning Organization regional and local staffs might also find it informative. It is intended to help practicing planners become aware of the range of methods and analysis techniques available, organized by the different categories of agency needs, to address different types of planning, policy, and research needs. This synthesis summarizes the current state of the practice by means of a survey of transportation planning agencies in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. This report provides reviews of the analysis methods used in recent project and program evaluation reports of these agencies, in addition to a bibliography of economic literature and guides.

Conference participants sought to identify gaps in the data and analytic tools needed to support economic analysis as related to transportation investment and to develop research proposals designed to fill those gaps. The opening day of the conference featured presentations by economists, transportation analysts, and policy makers on the theory and practice of economic analysis and its usefulness to decision makers. The second and third days of the conference revolved around participatory workshops. Six separate working groups deliberated over three questions: (1) What is the appropriate level of investment in transportation to encourage economic health? (2) How should projects be prioritized within a multimodal transportation program? (3) How much revenue is likely to flow from user charges, tolls, and other sources? At the conclusion of its deliberations, each working group developed a list of research proposals, which it then presented to the conference as a whole.