A Framework for a Cost Benefit Analysis of the Fairfax County, Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Project

About the report:

Cost-benefit analysis is sometimes a useful tool for evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of alternative courses of action. The first half of this study was an attempt to further the use of such analysis in the evaluation of a highway safety project - the Fairfax Alcohol Safety Action Project (ASAP). This project is designed to reduce the frequency and severity of alcohol-related crashes in the Fairfax County area. A complete cost-benefit analysis was not prepared because crucial information about-the program's effects was not available. However, a cost-benefit framework was designed which will hopefully serve as an aid to the decision makers involved in the ASAP. Both quantifiable and non-priceable costs and benefits arising from this project have been examined. The quantifiable costs are simply the ASAP expenditures of federal funds. Non-priceable costs include the value of citizens' compliance time in program surveys and the cost attributable to changes in the means of transportation. Quantifiable benefits are the reduction in alcohol-related accident costs, whereas the non-priceable benefits include increased public education and more exact police reporting. Such measurements imply that observed or simulated market prices and the conventional criteria of economic efficiency are regarded as being relevant to the decisions.

Authors