Estimating Order of Magnitude Transit System Benefits: An Examination Using Transit Planning Board Concept 3 Regional Transit Vision Plan for Metropolitan Atlanta

This paper presents the results of an estimation of transit benefits to the Atlanta region in 2030. The estimation is performed using outputs from the Regional Travel Demand Model and existing sources of data including National Transit Database statistics and other research. The aim of the paper is to provide an illustrative example of how existing data sources can be leveraged to provide order of magnitude system level benefit estimations for long-range transit systems planning. The results show that an estimation of laborshed unification for employment centers, safety, congestion reduction benefits, and consumer fuels savings could range between $4,950 to $10,800 million annually in 2030 depending upon shifts in population and employment patterns. Previous work estimated that the Concept 3 network, including operation and maintenance of the existing transit network, would cost approximately $2.4 billion annually meaning that in 2030 the ratio of annual benefits to cost could be estimated at between 2.1 to 4.5. These results suggest that it is possible to estimate system level benefits using existing data sources and that laborshed unification is an important benefit of transit system investment.