The California Active Transportation Benefit-Cost Tool has been developed by the UC Davis BicyclingPlus Research Collaborative to estimate expected benefits of proposed active transportation projects. It helps government agencies, practitioners, and community members understand project-specific cost effectiveness and explore options for improving project design.
The California Active Transportation Benefit-Cost Tool was designed in partnership with ATRC and guided by a technical advisory committee made up of members of local, regional, and state government agencies, community groups, and academics. See the user guide for more information.
Background
The tool is a project-level benefit calculator, not a traditional benefit-cost tool. Costs are provided by the user, and intervention benefit quantities are calculated when quantitative evidence is available. Where evidence on the impacts of interventions is suggestive of benefits but quantitative evidence is lacking, the tool reports qualitative outcomes. The current version of the tool calculates benefits in units specific to benefit categories (e.g., emissions, physical activity); it does not monetize benefits.
The tool was built for the specific purpose of Active Transportation Program (ATP) project comparison, but also serves as a tool for cities and counties to use to compare projects within their specific jurisdictions, and the California Transportation Commission (CTC) for program-wide evaluation.
Read the literature review that informed the tool development and the technical documentation which provides details on the calculations and assumptions used in the tool as well as other technical information.
Coming Soon
The California Active Transportation Benefit-Cost Tool will be updated to improve the accuracy and usability. This includes improvements to allow both project-specific and program-wide evaluation. This project will test the validity of the tool, improve the calculations, monetize them, and provide added tool functionality.
Project Partner: UC Davis
