Multimodal Enhancements to Public-Private Partnerships

Abstract

Public-Private Partnership (PPP or P3) projects have received attention as they can increase private sector participation in transportation projects. However, P3s are not a panacea. Worldwide, almost 40% of P3 projects initiated during the 1990s required that the contractual agreement be renegotiated, implying some type of project failure. Because some (not all) types of P3 projects require a toll, one viewpoint is that P3 projects can be proposed only if tolls will render them financially self-sustaining. For passenger transportation, this generally means encouraging modes that can be more easily tolled—usually auto travel—and not necessarily modes that are subsidized—such as transit travel. However, it has been argued that multimodal projects can yield societal benefits, such as better jobs-housing balance. The emphasis on modes which will generate user fees may naturally reduce the likelihood of a P3 investment that will enhance multiple transportation modes. However, if it were possible to translate the socially beneficial impacts of multimodal investments into revenue sources, it might be possible to increase private sector participation in multimodal P3 projects. This research examined how a multimodal P3 project influences land development, specifically the relationship between jobs and housing. There are four objectives: (1) to identify lessons learned from previous use of toll facilities (necessary because Virginia stakeholders are concerned that insights from more distant eras may be overlooked); (2) to develop a way to quantify jobs-housing balance that is sensitive to transportation investments across multiple modes; (3) to develop a taxonomy for classifying the degree of multimodality for P3 projects (necessary because such projects are not completely “multimodal” nor completely “unimodal); and (4) to explore how implementation of a multimodal P3 affects the degree of multimodality and jobs-housing balance. This research uses real data sets from P3s in Virginia, Florida, Colorado, and Rhode Island. While some data had to be requested from public agencies, the data elements required for the research contained herein are available in the public domain. No synthetic data were used, thus, the methodology used herein should be replicable in other locations. As an initial research effort to consider land development impacts in multimodal P3s, this research suggests four key contributions: (1) lessons learned from the use of toll facilities in the U.S.; (2) a methodology to scale multimodality; (3) a way to relate jobs-housing balance (given observed travel patterns) to the aforementioned multimodality scale; and (4) empirical evidence of the multimodality and jobs-housing balance impacts by multimodal P3 projects. Ultimately these contributions may inform guidelines for increasing multimodal components in P3s.