Evaluation Methodology of Urban Transportation Policy Based on Total Trip Cost

In the recent years, encouragement of public transit usage and expansion of public transportation infrastructures have been considered a main policy in many countries. Enhancement of public transportation policy implies reduction of social costs and reasonable allocation of social resources. It also leads city to a sustainable development. In order to have appropriate public transportation policies, it is necessary to have quantitative analysis and fairly reasonable measures when formulating and analyzing urban transportation policies, such as capital investment on infrastructures, pricing and fare of various modes, subsidy for public transportation, as well as monitoring and regulation schemes. Full trip cost is one of the measures for the quantitative analysis. Although lots of studies have explored and compared trip costs of various modes, there is lack of a comprehensive methodology to analyze the full trip costs. This study aims to develop full trip cost models for urban transportation modes. First, this study identifies components of full trip costs. Then, the study proposes mathematical models of the full trip costs for urban transportation modes. According to the model developed, this study divides all trips into three main categories, i.e., public transit, private transportation, and paratransit and identifies 42 types of trip chains. Full trip cost included user monetary costs, facility costs, travel time costs, and external costs. In numerical analysis, this study applies the models to quantify full cost of trip chains in Taipei Metropolitan and discusses implications of results on transportation policies. Besides, this study applies the models to assess various policies and strategies, including bus rapid transit oriented development (BRTOD), motorcycle management, and comparison of metro transfer with green modes or automobile park-and-ride policies. It is verified that methodology developed in this study can also be applied for other cities as tools for assessing transportation policies and alternatives. It is also shown that the full cost models developed in this study can enhance capability of urban transportation planning and policy assessment to achieve social equity and sustainability objectives in urban development.