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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

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Title:

Cost-Benefit Assessment of Implementing Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) in Kansas Department of Transportation Maintenance Vehicles

Abstract:

This report describes the technologies associated with Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL), discusses a national survey of transportation agencies conducted as part of this work, and presents an analysis of the costs and benefits of implementing AVL for use in Kansas DOT maintenance vehicles and striper trucks. The survey included all state DOTs, Canadian provinces, and municipalities thought to have implemented AVL. Of those surveyed, 15 had implemented or were in the process of implementing AVL for maintenance activities, 12 of those citing snow removal as their primary application. Chapter 4 discusses some of the specifics of each implementation. All implementations were considered beneficial, but none of the implementations included a quantitative study of the benefits. In the absence of any before and after data related to AVL implementation in highway maintenance activities, the benefit/cost analysis was based on conservative assumptions relating to the types of benefits identified (qualitatively) through the survey. Conservative estimates of snowfall, accident rates, and the effect of AVL on snow clearance times were used, along with some averages of estimates provided by survey respondents, such as time savings from reduced paperwork. These conservative assumptions resulted in benefit/cost (B/C) ratios ranging from 2.6 to 3.0 over 20 years, depending on the implementation schedule. Moderate assumptions were also applied to better represent the results that can be reasonably expected (though still leaning to the conservative side). The resulting B/C ratios ranged from 24.3 to 28.4. Most likely, the savings in operational efficiencies alone would more than offset the cost of system implementation and maintenance. While the initial capital costs are substantial, the results of this study show that AVL for highway maintenance operations is a worthwhile investment.

Source(s):

University of Kansas, Prepared for the Kansas DOT

https://trid.trb.org/view/731213

Date: 2002

Author:

Meyer

Keywords:


Winter maintenance
Benefits
Costs
Benefit/Cost
Maintenance vehicle
Communications

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