3. STEP 1: DEFINE PROJECT TYPE

This chapter describes the first step in the analysis framework, which is classification of the project type. The project classification is a critical first step because it determines the applicable evaluation criteria and impact measures – including the types of direct transportation impacts (for Step 3), the types of reliant industries and other affected sectors of the economy (for Step 4), and the geography of the analysis (local or nationwide impacts) to be evaluated (for Step 5).

3.1 Functional Activities

The first dimension of the project classification is concerned with the type of transportation facility and its spatial characteristic. There are three major types of facility locations of interest to this framework. They are defined below and illustrated in Figure 3.1:

• Corridor – Typically either highway or rail corridors (or both) but could also include a short-sea shipping route or air travel route.
• Terminal Facility – Site-specific facilities include seaports, airports, intermodal terminals, etc. Terminals are points of transfer among and between modes, or redistribution along routes. They can be new facilities or expanding the capacity and efficiency of existing facilities.
• Entry/Access Point – These are border gateways, though this could also include foreign trade zones, national gateways, or regional distribution centers. As such, they may also be located at seaports or airports.

Figure 3.1 Types of Project Facilities

This classification will help identify the types of users and the general geographic or spatial scope of the analysis. It is important to determine if the transportation impacts of the project are able to be captured by modeling or analyzing the project influence within a regional context or whether a broader national or international network system context is needed in order to fully capture the impact of the project. A network system analysis is typically required when evaluating rail and port investments and may be warranted for specific contexts of highway corridor improvements.

While it is difficult to provide generalized guidance on how large an area should be included in the transportation impact analysis, the key considerations include: 1) what are the end-to-end origins and destinations of trips that dominate the use of the facility? and 2) do the travel performance changes within the local geography persist and ultimately translate into meaningful travel savings for shippers? If the project proponents give explicit consideration to these questions, they will be less likely to miss benefits.

3.2 Transportation Improvement Categories

The next part is to classify proposed projects by their primary transportation objectives (i.e., the way in which they are expected to improve transportation system performance). So while projects may have transportation, economic, environmental, or political motivations, their primary transportation objectives generally fall within at least one of the following four improvement categories:

• Link capacity expansion. Expanding capacity for the throughput of vehicles, containers, or freight (volume or tonnage) that a highway corridor or rail line can process within given performance standards. This can also lead to speed, cost, or other performance improvements at demand levels that are below the link capacity limit.
• Terminal capacity expansion. Expanding capacity of throughput of vehicles, containers, or freight (volume or tonnage) that a terminal can process within given performance standards. This can also lead to speed, cost, or other performance improvements at demand levels that are below the terminal capacity limit.
• Operational improvements. Enhancing the speed, reliability, safety, or cost involved in use of the link or terminal for any given demand level, without necessarily changing the physical infrastructure capacity.
• Connectivity. Improving the speed and reliability of movement between any two points (links or nodes) through reconfiguration of a network. This can be accomplished by means of new or dramatically improved links for movement between two points, or by means of new forms of interchange between two modes or systems of freight movement.

The four major categories of transportation improvement are shown in Table 3.1, along with examples of the range of project actions (investments) that fall within each of these four categories. Note that neither the improvement categories nor the list of project actions makes any distinction between new facilities or existing facilities. Rather, the table instead focuses on the affected mode and the type of action taken to change capacity or performance. The third column indicates the primary modes that may be associated with a particular type of investment. Understanding which modes will be affected is important for determining the analytical models and methodologies needed later for Step 3.

Table 3.1 Examples of Projects by Category of Transportation Improvement

3.3 Transportation Benefit and Metrics

Freight Vehicle Movement. For each type of project action, there are corresponding benefits for goods movement that can be measured. The five major types direct transportation benefits are:

1. Faster average travel time, due either to facility design enhancement, capacity expansion and/or reduction in congestion-induced queuing;
2. Lower travel cost, due to improved productivity of the transportation system, from improved cycling of vehicles or railcars, or the ability to handle larger loads (including double-stacked containers, larger vessels or heavier vehicles;
3. Higher reliability in delivery times, due to reduction in the frequency or severity of traffic incidents or to reduction in vehicular congestion;
4. Cargo capacity in terms of capability to serve growth in freight demand without degraded performance; and
5. Improved safety due to design improvements and reduction in congestion, queuing or weaving of vehicles.

Table 3.2 shows, for each type of project, the corresponding types of transportation benefits and key metrics for portraying those benefits. This is meant to be a generally comprehensive list so that analysts can identify the choice of analytical methods for a specific project type. However, it is important to note that these are just the “first order” direct benefits for freight transportation movement that occur as a direct result of the various types of projects, and do not reflect the broader industry and economy effects described in Step 4 of the analytical framework. They accrue to freight vehicle movement (where a “vehicle” may be a truck, train, boat or aircraft), thus they are experienced first by the vehicle owners and operators.

Table 3.2 Transportation Benefits and Metrics by Project Type

Direct Shipper Benefits. While the first order impacts are experienced by freight vehicle operators and owners, it is freight shippers who ultimately realize the transportation efficiency benefits (for all types of projects) as business productivity enhancements. That results from:

• Greater system throughput (volume moving per day);
• Greater operating efficiency (cost per unit of throughput); and
• Tighter scheduling (allowed by faster times and greater time reliability).

Cross-Modal Transportation Benefits. There are also transportation system benefits and beneficiaries that are not listed in Table 3.2. These generally involve cross-modal benefits, such as congestion reduction benefits (travel time, reliability, and safety improvement) for passenger vehicles that benefit when some freight movement is shifted from truck to short-haul or medium-haul rail service.

Result. The end product of Step 1 should be a classification of proposed projects by their a) mode and functional activities, b) form of improvement, c) mix of project actions, and d) associated metrics for assessing transportation benefits.