Estimating Capital and Operating Costs in Urban Transportation Planning

(Hardback)

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Description

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 US 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.

Reviews

The book is a good summary of a problem that all planners face at one time or another: conducting technical analysis in a biased environment. The case descriptions of the relationships between technical analysis and decision-making make this book worth reading. * Journal of American Planning Association *
This book is of interest to transportation planners, politicians, practitioners, and persons interested in improving urban transportation infrastructure. * Defense Transportation Journal *

Author Bio

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.