Getting Up to Speed with Transportation Economic Impact Tools

This article explores the use of economic analysis in the transportation industry, including the increased use of economic impact analysis tools by state and regional agencies to support decision making across every stage of transportation planning. Economic analysis can help clarify the case for transportation investments at different stages in planning process. The authors detail five primary stages at which economic impacts can play a role: long-range vision planning; project prioritization and selection; state-local and public-private collaboration; individual project implementation; and operations management and asset maintenance. The authors suggest that the value of economic impact analysis lies in its ability to show how proposed investments are likely to affect job markets, business delivery markets, freight supply chains, and visitor activities, thus impacting economic growth.