Link-based full cost analysis of travel by automobile
Recently published:
Cui, Mengying, Dai, Zhe, and Levinson, D. (2024) Link-based Full Cost Analysis of Travel by Automobile. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/23249935.2024.2371350 [doi]
This paper develops a link-based full cost model for auto travel, which identifies both internal and external costs of travel, and gives a link-based cost estimate for the Minneapolis – St. Paul (Twin Cities) metropolitan region. The key cost components are time, emissions, crashes, user monetary, and infrastructure. The estimates show that the average full cost of travel is a $0.694/veh-km traffic-weighted average over the study area, of which the time and user monetary costs account for approximately 70% of the total. Except for the infrastructure cost, highways are more cost-effective than other surface roadways considering all the other cost components, as well as the internal and full costs. Quantifying the full costs of auto travel is essential for making sustainable investments.