Estimating Texas motor vehicle operating costs : final report

This report and its appendices summarize the findings of a 2-year extension to the TxDOT-sponsored study 0-5974 entitled “Estimating Texas Motor Vehicle Costs” undertaken by a Center for Transportation Research (CTR) team of mechanical engineers and economists at The University of Texas at Austin. The work was conducted in two phases over a 4-year period beginning in 2007 and this report details the second phase conducted over the period 2009– 2011. It reports results in three areas: 1) total operating costs for the major vehicle classes currently seen on Texas highways, 2) engine models for hybrid light vehicles, and 3) results from examining the impact of transmission types through gearbox and differential sub-models. This second phase is the focus of this report but the reader interested in why this work was undertaken should peruse technical report 0-5974-1. This second, and final, report contains several detailed appendices on mechanical engineering sub-models and a product—a Vcost model and manual—for TxDOT use in highway and freight planning, economics and departmental revenue estimation. (Note: Traditionally vehicle operating costs were termed VOCs but the current use of this acronym to represent volatile organic compounds in emission studies encouraged the authors to adopt a different term—Vcost.)