Project

Economic Productivity and Transportation Investment Priorities

By EDR Group (now EBP) for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, 2013 (Active - NCHRP 2-24)

EDR Group recently completed Phase 1 of NCHRP 2-24, a national project to develop a methodology and guide for incorporating productivity gains in the analysis and prioritization of transportation investments. The methodology and guide will encourage DOTs and other agencies to apply consistent analysis methods and produce results that facilitate public decision making about transportation improvement priorities.

During Phase 1, EDR Group conducted a critical review of literature on the links between transportation system performance and economic productivity, including theoretical research and empirical studies and micro- as well as macro-economic perspectives. The review was used to characterize current thinking on the influence of transportation system performance on total factor productivity and how the influence of system improvements on productivity may be explicitly assessed. The team identified and described factors driving multifactor productivity improvement, the characteristics of regional economies that make them susceptible to influence by transportation improvements, and how increased productivity attributable to transportation system improvements in a region may be projected.