Browsing by Subject "Expenditures"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Analyses of Bicycle and Pedestrian Trail Traffic: New Tools for Modeling User Expenditures and Demand
    (2017-08) Ermagun, Alireza
    Despite the importance of multi-use trails in urban non-motorized transportation networks, transportation planners, engineers, and trail managers lack tools for describing economic activity associated with local trail use and for predicting bicycle and pedestrian demand for trails. New tools are needed to plan and prioritize investments in new facilities and to inform management and maintenance of trail infrastructure. Among other needs, they need tools to predict (1) expenditures by local users to support local economic development initiatives and assess neighborhood effects of proposals for trail development and (2) trail traffic demand for optimizing investments and managing maintenance of systems and facilities. This thesis responds to these needs and augments the burgeoning literature on trail traffic analysis by developing models of trail-related expenditures and mode-specific trail demand models. From the expenditures by local users side, using the results of intercept surveys completed by 1,282 trail users on the Central Ohio Greenway trail network in 2014, this thesis estimates the probabilities and patterns that different types of trail users will make expenditures. Approximately one-fifth of trail users reported spending between US$15 and US$20 for food, drink, and other incidental items. Across all trail users the average expenditure by individuals is about US$3 per visit. All else equal, cyclists are more than twice as likely than other users to report expenditures. Users visiting trails principally for recreation are 53% more likely to spend, while users visiting trails mainly for exercise were about 19% less likely. Both longer trips to and on the trails are associated with higher spending. From the trail traffic demand side, this thesis employs trail traffic volumes recorded at 15-minute intervals for 32 multi-use trails located in 13 urban areas across the United States from January 1, 2014 through February 16, 2016. The results of analyses indicate (1) daily trail traffic varies substantially – over three orders of magnitude – across the monitoring stations included in the study; (2) daily trail traffic is highly correlated with weather, and the parabola form of weather parameters works well for modeling variables such as temperature, where trail use is associated with warmer temperatures, but only up to a point at which higher temperatures then decrease use; (3) bicyclists and pedestrians respond differently to variations in weather, and their responses vary both within and across regions; (4) with only a few exceptions, average daily pedestrians (ADP) and average daily bicyclists (ADB) are correlated with different variables, and the magnitude of effects of variables that are the same varies significantly between the two modes; (5) the mean relative percentage error (MRPE) for bicyclist, pedestrian, and mixed-mode demand models, respectively, are 65.4%, 85.3%, and 45.9%; (6) although using multimodal monitoring networks enables us to juxtapose the bicyclist demand with pedestrian demand, there is not a significant improvement in predicting total demand using multimodal sensors; (7) a new post-validation procedure improves the demand models, reducing the MRPE of bicyclist, pedestrian, and mixed-mode models by 27.2%, 32.1%, and 14.1%. Transportation planners, engineers, and trail managers can use these results to estimate the effects of weather and climate on trail traffic and to plan and manage facilities more effectively. The developed models also can be used in practical applications such as selection of route corridors and prioritization of investments where order-of-magnitude estimates suffice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Impacts of Deferred Maintenance in Minnesota
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2022-04) Fonseca-Sarmiento, Camila; Zeerak, Raihana; Jiang, Haiyue; Zhao, Jerry
    The roadway system is critical to social development, economic growth, and the overall quality of life. In the U.S., the condition of highways and roads is being compromised due to several reasons including age deterioration, rising costs of construction, and a decline in funding. Similarly, in Minnesota, the majority of pavements are aging and in need of significant maintenance or reconstruction, but there is an expected deficit of $17.7 billion for state roads over the next 20 years. At the local level, pavement conditions along state-aid roads and county, city, and township roads are anticipated to deteriorate significantly based on current funding levels. In addition, significant budgetary impacts on maintenance spending are expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given these budget limitations, agencies often postpone planned maintenance to make funding available for other transportation purposes, but the deferred maintenance will negatively affect asset life, leading to higher future maintenance costs and lower roadway safety. This research analyzes spatial patterns of maintenance expenditures across localities in Minnesota, explores how fiscal conditions affect maintenance expenditures, and examines roadway maintenance decision-making across localities.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Update of a Web-Based Economic Impact Calculator for Small and Medium-Sized Airports and a Study of the Economic Impact of Minnesota Airports
    (Center for Transportation Studies, 2011-01) Gartner, William C.; Tuck, Brigid; Erkkila, Daniel L.
    This report details the process of updating the Web-based airport economic impact calculator and the calculation of the statewide economic impact of Minnesota’s public airports. The end products of these efforts are: 1) an economic impact calculator that more adequately reflects current economic conditions with added flexibility to handle large, unique airport operations 2) and an estimate of the total economic impact of Minnesota’s airports in 2009. The airport economic impact calculator prompts users to enter data on nine main types of economic activity to calculate the impact of their local airport. These include: public airport operations and capital investments, fixed based operators (FBOs), commercial scheduled air service, retail businesses, general aviation, freight operators, private corporations with flight departments, non-profit and government entities and other activities. The newly updated economic impact calculator allows for greater variability in the size and scale of these airport operations and contains new economic impact coefficients that reflect changes in the economy since the calculator was first developed. These nine activities also contribute to the economy of Minnesota. To calculate the economic impact of the airport system in Minnesota, primary data were collected from airport mangers, FBO’s, corporate flight departments and governmental units. Secondary data were obtained from Minneapolis-St. Paul International, Rochester International, and Duluth International airports to provide a comprehensive economic impact analysis for the state.