Evaluating State Multimodal Transportation Policy Responses

Abstract

Using Virginia’s statewide multimodal plan as a case study, this paper outlines an approach to evaluating policies that coordinate the transportation-related efforts of individual agencies. The approach entails identification of seven potentially promising multimodal policies, a case study quantification of impacts for two such policies, and recommended steps for implementation. The case policies evaluated were (1) using cost per kilogram of emissions eliminated to select among eight alternatives and (2) increasing density to reduce CO2 emissions. The case study demonstrates the feasibility of the outlined approach: Policy 1 increases efficacy by a factor of up to 3.7, and Policy 2 reduces annual CO2 by 1.5 million metric tons, showing that a comparison of diverse multiagency policies at a sketch planning level is productive. The paper shows that a multimodal planner’s role includes explicit identification of assumptions and quantitative methods that enable a comparison of diverse transportation investments given the typical lack of hard data early in the transportation planning process.