Transportation economics fundamentals and applications

a. NAAQS were established for six principal pollutants. Describe each and give examples of each applicable pollutant. (10 points)
The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) were established in order to cope with six principal pollutants. The pollutants can be described as follows:
1. Carbon Monoxide (CO) – This is a pollutant that is in the form of an urban smog. It is more often perceived in different regions such as California and also in Lake Michigan
2. Nitrogen Dioxide – this is an emission that comes from engines
3. Particulate Matter – this is a pollutant that is usually found in smoke, soot, dust, and soil
4. Lead – Despite the fact that this is of the six principle pollutants, lead has been discontinued and reduced by the EPA from the 80s period. An example of lead includes lead that is found in gasoline and also in products such as paints.
5. Sulphur Dioxide - this is a pollutant that is emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels, in industrial facilities, and in power plants. In addition, the pollutant can be obtained in very small amounts when metal is extracted from ore.
6. Ozone – Ozone is an emission from industrial facilities, chemical solvents, exhaust pipes of motor vehicles and electrical utilities.
b. In Hepburn’s Speed Model, the coefficients of vehicles are indicated for C and D. As the chief of operations in your organization, you are responsible for presenting the yearly budget for the semi trucks in your company’s inventory. Since your safety officer is insisting that each of your drivers must maintain an average speed of 55mph, what would be the vehicle operating cost of your company for each semi-truck in cent per mile? ____(10 points)
Vehicle Operating Costs can be calculated using the following formula:
VOC = a0 – a1s + a2s2
In this case s = 55mph
VOC = 38.1 – (0.093 × 55) + (0.00033 × 55)
= 38.1 – (5.115) + (0.99825)
= 33.9833
c. A taxi driver plans to pick you up at the airport and drop you off at the bank so you can complete some financial transaction before you head home. He notes that the change in vehicle operating cost (VOC) is 42 cents per mile. Given that his fuel consumption per minute is 0.2, what is the approximate price of fuel for this given arrangement if you delayed the driver for 36 minutes at the bank? ____(10 points)
Change in fuel vehicle operating costs (VOC) = g(d0 – d1)p
VOC = 42 cents per mile
G – fuel consumption per minute = 0.2
D0 – D1 = change in delay = 36 minutes
P = price of fuel
42 = 0.2 (36) p
p = 42 / 0.2 (36)
p = 42 / 7.2
p = 5.8333
p = $5.83
d. The simple interest for buying a passenger transit rail is shown as the product of the principle amount (P), time (in years), and annual rate (R). The City of Phoenix plans to buy five additional mass transit cars for $15 million, and pay off its loan in 30 years. What would the annual percentage rate be if the city plans to make an interest payment of $2 million? ____(10 points)
Simple Interest Rate = (Principle Amount × Time × Annual Rate) / 100
$2,000,000 = ($15,000,000 × 10 years × Annual Rate) / 100
$200,000,000 = $150,000,000 × Annual Rate
Annual Rate = $200,000,000 / $150,000,000
= 20 percentage
e. In a box model, the maximum distance to transport particle across a city is calculated as follows: Approximate length of one side is 30 miles, width is 28 miles and the mixing height is 2 miles. To the nearest mile, what will be this distance? ____(10 points)
D = ?a2 + b2 + H2
In this case;
a = 30 miles
b = 28 miles
H = 2 miles
D = ?302 + 282 + 22
= 41.085 miles
f. In a box model, the maximum distance to transport particle across a city is calculated as follows: Approximate length of one side is 30 miles, width is 28 miles and the mixing height is 2 miles. For a pollutant particle emitted on one side of the town, what is the maximum time it will take to be transported across the city with wind velocity of 10 miles per hour (to the nearest hour)? ____(12 points)
The distance as obtained from the previous question is 41.085 miles
tmax = distance / wind speed
= 41.085 / 10
= 4.1085
= 4.1 hours
g. In a box model, the maximum distance to transport particle across a city is calculated as follows: Approximate length of one side is 30 miles, width is 28 miles and the mixing height is 2 miles. To the nearest hour what will be the average time it will take a particle to travel from one side to the other (to the nearest hour)? ____(12 points)
tavg = (?a2 + b2 + H2) / 2V
However, D = ?a2 + b2 + H2
= D / 2V
D = 41.085 miles
V = 10 miles per hour
tavg = 41.085 / 20
= 2.05
= 2 hours
h. If you are the planning engineer for an apartment complex your organization plans to build close to the highway and you know that your potential tenants will complain of traffic noise hazards. You want to assure them that you have adequately carried out the noise impact analysis. Given that the sea level pressure is 0.00002N/m, to ensure that pressure level does not exceed 12 decibels, the sound pressure of concern must be___________ (in N/m). ____(13 points)
SPL (dB) = 10log10
p2 / p02 = 10 log10 p2 / 0.000022
10 = 10log10 p2 / 4 * 10-10
SPL = 10 dB
i. In the Rocky Mountain region, there are endangered species like jumping mice and burrowing owls that are protected by the EPA. If you want to build a roadway to facilitate traffic congestions in Denver, part of your plan will include using Simpson’s diversity index to calculate the number of organisms in two communities. If EPA warned you that there are 400 burrowing owls in proposed region Community A and 500 burrowing owls in proposed region Community B, determine Simpson’s diversity index for community A. ____(13 points)
The formula for Simpson’s Diversity Index is as follows:
D = 1 – (? n (n – 1) / N (N – 1) (Sinha and Labi, 2007)
In this case:
na = population for community A = 400
nb = population for community B = 500
N = summation of both population A and B = 400 + 500 = 900
Da = Simpson’s Diversity for Community A
= N (N -1 ) / {na (na – 1) + nb (nb – 1)}
= 900 (900 – 1) / {400 (400 – 1) + 500 (500 – 1)}
= 900(899) / {400(399) + 500(499)}
= 809,100 / (159,600 + 249,500)
= 809,100 / 409,100
= 1.978



References
Sinha, K., & Labi, S. (2007). Transportation decision making principles of project evaluation and programming. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley.