Is it worth it?
The answer, at this point, is "it depends". And honestly, what it depends upon is what your and your fellow commuters' time is really worth.
That's why we've created the tool below, so you can see how much you're saying your time in traffic is worth if the project goes forward! Just enter the indicated data in the tool below, and we'll do the math....
All the default numbers in the tool above are taken from a federally-funded transportation project in North Carolina, which promised to spend $461 million to reduce the travel time of some 100,000 train commuters between Charlotte and Raleigh by 13 minutes a trip, which would bring their one-way transit time down to just under three hours. We then adapted the math developed by John Whitehead for determining the benefit-cost ratio for the project to estimate what value per hour saved per individual that the state's politicians were assigning to the primary declared benefit of the project.
So if you're a member of the politician-developer industrial complex, that's the number you need to aim for in the projects you pursue. That is, if you really care about pursuing genuinely worthwhile projects for the people who live in your communities.
But then, we know you have other priorities....
Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:
ironman at politicalcalculations
Thanks in advance!
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