"A Comprehensive Approach for Evaluating Value Pricing and Innovative Financing Policies "
Lei Zhang - PI
Civil & Environmental Engineering
This project will develop a comprehensive quantitative approach for evaluating the impact of value pricing and innovative financing policies on transportation system performance, considering both the revenue generation and reinvestment stages (hence the word “comprehensive” in the project title). System performance measures include efficiency (e.g. delay, travel time), equity (e.g. distributional effects on various income groups), and sustainability (e.g. fuel consumption, emissions). This research will achieve the research objectives by answering the following specific questions:
- How is transportation revenue (fuel tax revenue, toll revenue etc.) currently invested by various authorities?
- What are the impacts of value pricing and innovative financing policies on transportation system performance and various user groups in the long run, under the existing investment process? How about under alternative investment processes (e.g. revenue dedicated to highway capacity expansion, or more revenue invested on transit, or direct compensation to certain user groups)?
- How will the consideration of user benefits from revenue reinvestment influence the evaluation results?
- How can findings from this research be incorporated into policy debates on congestion pricing, transportation revenue generation, and transportation investment?
