Empirical Analysis on the Definition of Composite Cost in User Benefit Evaluation of Transport Projects

Abstract

This paper intends to examine empirically the three types of composite generalized costs in analyzing the user benefit in transport project. The three costs are defined as the minimum observed cost among a choice set, the weighted average of the observed costs and the cost based on the expected maximum utility including the random term. The authors analyze the user benefits under various conditions of transport network and compare them among the three composite costs. We find that the relationship of benefit among the different composite costs depends on the initial condition of transport service, variety of alternatives between an origin to a destination, improvement level of service by the project and the scale of generalized cost. Then, we simulate the benefit in the two real railway projects of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Consequently, we conclude that the weighted average of the observed costs may be regarded as the approximate value for the theoretical value under just hte limited condition.