Land Use and Traffic Characteristics

¶ … land use and traffic characteristics of the current situation and uses these relationships to estimate future traffic dynamics given proposed or estimated future land use and proposed transportation network developments (Patriksson, 1994, p. 9). In this way, model analysis is similar to scenario planning, by which stakeholders develop alternative concepts of a community's future and the implementation plans to realize those visions (Weiner, 2008).

Model analysis is more conceptual in nature than cost-benefit analysis. While cost-benefit analysis has some conceptual elements, it is fundamentally a financial analysis. Cost-benefit analysis aims to establish a few key understandings. One is to discover what are the long-term funding needs for proposed projects. Another is to make plain the financial consequences and implications of different transportation improvement alternatives. Through cost-benefit analysis, one estimates project costs, predicts yearly funding needs, and helps spur thinking about appropriate financing options. These considerations compose the cost portion of the analysis (Benz, 1999, p. 305). Benefits include such variables as savings in travel time, safety enhancements, reduced vehicle repair costs. Each of these elements can be represented in financial terms (Benz, 1999, pp. 310-311).

This author advocates using a combination of analysis methods. Model analysis is a kind of brainstorming that can help expand the range of options, alternatives, and possibilities for solving a problem or improving a situation. The cost-benefit approach is necessary for making sure that all the stakeholders know what is feasible and what may not be affordable. Together, they complement one another, providing a kind of right brain, left brain completeness. Moreover, employing a combination of methods serves to gather a more comprehensive body of information that takes into consideration more perspectives, which in most cases should have a positive impact on decision-making outcomes.

Including many perspectives in one's analyses is important when considering the array of political elements involved in urban transportation planning. Government agencies at the local, state, and federal levels play vital roles in city transportation planning, decision-making, and funding. Non-governmental interest groups such as environmentalism groups, chambers of commerce, neighborhood associations, bicycling advocacy clubs, and historic preservation societies often seek to voice their concerns about transportation projects that touch upon or threaten their areas of focus. Additionally, policy makers and politicians have to take into account the viewpoints and sensitivities of their constituencies given that voters are most certainly impacted by transportation developments as residents, motorists, commuters, and taxpayers. Unpopular projects pushed through over vocal protests will very likely produce a backlash at the ballot box. Indeed, promoting a particular transportation project can be a political campaign in and of itself.