The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is developing a comprehensive set of measures that link investments in transportation to the general economic performance of the New York State Economy. The agency would like to understand in particular how NYSDOT investments singularly or in concert with investments by State and Local governments and Public Agencies/Authorities could improve economic competitiveness. As in the rest of the U.S., transport systems have been designed to link, impact and even stimulate economic activities. New York State, one of the older industrialized States must continue to evaluate the scope and impact of their infrastructure investments and estimate the quantitative impacts of those investments. Is there a clear one to one relationship between dollars spent on transportation investments (e.g., new lanes of highways, airport access roads, rail improvements) and economic returns to the State? While it is widely posited that investments in transportation infrastructure contribute to economic growth and performance, the measurement and the magnitude of the impact of a given component of the transportation system on regional economic performance is difficult to establish. Wide scale projects that impact many users by providing increased mobility, access to port and trade facilities or perhaps provide an increase in tourist traffic are difficult to value through a single performance measure. The true economic value of a transportation system may not be best captured by measurement of individual parts, but in fact may be best measured by the overall network quality. To establish the national and international best practices in terms of establishing the economic value of transportation network, the authors conducted two basic forms of research. Their first method was to review the existing literature concerning the relationship of transportation on economic development. Their second method was to conduct a survey of the State Departments of Transportation across the United States to request information on their use of economic performance metrics and reporting standards regarding the economic benefits of transportation investments.
[1]
Contribution of transportation investments to county output
,
2007
.
[2]
George I. Treyz,et al.
The dynamics of U.S. internal migration
,
1993
.
[3]
Transportation and Infrastructure, Retail Clustering, and Local Public Finance: Evidence from Wal-Mart's Expansion
,
2006
.
[4]
Kaan Ozbay,et al.
EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACCESSIBILITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
,
2003
.
[5]
R Eberts.
UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF TRANSPORTATION ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
,
2000
.
[6]
M. Lahr,et al.
Creating a Cost-of-Doing-Business Index
,
2004
.
[7]
W. Wascher,et al.
Compensating Differentials and Evolution in the Quality-of-Life Among U.S. States
,
2001
.
[8]
S. Rosenthal,et al.
The Geography of Entrepreneurship in the New York Metropolitan Area
,
2005
.
[9]
Kaan Ozbay,et al.
Empirical analysis of transportation investment
and economic development at state, county and municipality levels
,
2006
.
[10]
Kajal Lahiri,et al.
Economic Indicators for the US Transportation Sector
,
2006
.
[11]
Randall W. Eberts,et al.
PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
,
1990
.
[12]
David Banister,et al.
Transport investment and the promotion of economic growth
,
2001
.
[13]
David Banister,et al.
Transport Investment and Economic Development
,
2000
.