Estimating Capital and Operating Costs in Urban Transportation Planning

Addressing the chronic underestimation of capital and operating costs in urban transportation projects, this book provides a detailed analysis of the cost estimating process using case studies from three U.S. cities and outlines a practical framework for this process. The work goes beyond a simple quantitative approach to explaining cost underestimation and looks at the planning process as a tool for both argumentation and structuring the argumentation. This approach highlights the difficulties in several components of the estimating process and suggests specific and practical actions to address these problems. The proposed framework will strengthen the estimating function and the link between analysis and decision in urban transportation planning.

This work will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in transportation planning, urban planning, and transportation engineering.

List of contents

Introduction
Transportation Planning in a Changing Environment
Case Studies
The Technical Process of Estimating Costs
Decision Making: Perspectives, Elements, and Problems
Putting the Pieces Together: A Framework for Cost Estimating
Conclusions
Recapitulation: Some Views with Hindsight
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Aurelio Menendez is an infrastructure specialist with the World Bank in Washington, D.C. For the past decade he has been involved at the academic and professional level with public transportation planning and decision making in both the developed and developing world. He holds a PhD in urban regional planning from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Product details

• Authors: Aurelio Menendez, Menendez Aurelio
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.07.1993
• EAN: 9780275942199
• ISBN: 978-0-275-94219-9
• Subjects: Guides > Motor vehicles, aircraft, ships, space travel; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Individual industrial sectors, branches; USA, Business, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Accounting / Managerial, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Public Finance, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Transportation, cost accounting, United States of America, USA, Transport industries, Public finance, Public finance and taxation