Transportation Systems Management and Operations Benefit-Cost Analysis Compendium

FOREWORD

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Operations is pleased to present this publication titled Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) Compendium. The TSMO BCA)Compendium is a continuation in the series of reference documents and tools developed by the FHWA Office of Operations designed to assist planners and operations professionals in evaluating the benefits and costs of Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) strategies and technologies. In 2012, FHWA released the Benefit/Cost Analysis Desk Reference  (available at: https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop12028/index.htm) to provide practitioners with the fundamental concepts and guidance for conducting BCA for a wide range of transportation system management and operations (TSM&O) strategies. This TSMO BCA Compendium builds on the BCA Desk Reference by presenting a collection of cases from across the country where benefit cost analyses have been applied to evaluate specific TSMO technologies or strategies. These evaluations demonstrate the use of custom manual or spreadsheet analyses developed by the agency or its contractors or the application of available software tools to conduct the BCA.  The Compendium also includes hypothetical cases designed to demonstrate how BCA can be used for specific TSMO technologies or strategies.  Several of the hypothetical cases illustrate the use of TOPS-BC (https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/plan4ops/topsbctool/index.htm), an FHWA developed sketch-level planning BCA spreadsheet tool. This TSMO BCA Compendium is a companion piece to similar publication focused on road-weather applications titled "The Road Weather Benefit Cost Analysis Compendium," which is available at: https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop14033/index.htm.

The FHWA Office of Operations is supporting this compendium through workshops and related technical assistance. If you have any comments on this material, seek further assistance with a  TSMO BCA, or wish to discuss opportunities for hosting a workshop, please contact Jim Hunt at jim.hunt@dot.gov, 717-221-4422 or Ralph Volpe at ralph.volpe@dot.gov, 404-562-3637.

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Robert Arnold
Director Office of Transportation Management
Office of Operations, FHWA