Comparison of Virginia's Multimodal Transportation Corridors Using Cost and Demographic Analyses

About the report:

This effort was performed in support of VTrans2025, Virginia's long-range multimodal transportation plan, and the VTrans2025 Multimodal Advisory Committee. The effort develops a preliminary approach to evaluating multimodal and highway-only corridor plans and policies when the projects comprising the plans and policies are not yet clearly defined. The effort compares Virginia's eleven multimodal transportation corridors using two sources of data: (1) cost, and (2) demographic. With the cost analysis, the report seeks to compare the corridors using capital cost estimates from four readily available sources of data: multimodal agency plans, a highway needs assessment, a statewide highway plan, and MPO/PDC long-range transportation plans. The cost analysis highlights the challenges of preparing and comparing cost estimations, including the non-uniformity of assumptions about constituent projects and overlapping or noncontiguous jurisdictions. The results of the cost analyses suggest needs for the consideration of operations and maintenance costs in comparing corridors, and a consideration of whether the benefits of particular multimodal initiatives in corridors might be equivalent to those of particular highway-only initiatives. With the demographic analysis, population density studies within each of the corridors suggest several corridors have densities that might readily support non-automobile modes. The results of the demographic analyses suggest extending the approach to study accessibility metrics by mode and addressing which spatial scales--local, regional, and statewide--are appropriate for various questions of investment policy. The recommendations identify opportunities for improving coordination among government and stakeholder organizations that are engaged in cost and benefits analyses for long-range multimodal transportation planning. Cost-benefit analysis of major transportation projects is required by the recent Transportation Act of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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