60756 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 218 / Wednesday, November 12, 1997 / Notices

1The original Notice established the forecast year

as year 20 of the analysis period, and noted that an

opening year forecast will be used for financial

analysis and as a check on initial ridership

projections.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

Section 5309 (Section 3(j)) FTA New

Starts Criteria

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration

(FTA), DOT

ACTION: Amendment of notice.

SUMMARY: The Federal Transit

Administration (FTA) is amending its

December 19, 1996 Notice describing

the criteria it will use to evaluate

candidate projects for discretionary New

Starts funding under Title 49 United

States Code (U.S.C.) Section 5309.

Specifically, the Notice is amended to

reflect Departmental guidance issued on

April 9, 1997 establishing a Departmentwide standard for the value of travel

time; correct an editorial error regarding

the application of travel time savings to

the criteria for mobility improvements;

account for the lack of standardized

national assumptions regarding the unit

value of criteria pollutant and

greenhouse gas emissions; reflect a

change in the definition of ‘‘boarding

points associated with the proposed

new start’’ for purposes of evaluating

mobility improvements; and reflect a

change in the definition of ‘‘new start

service area’’ for purposes of evaluating

operating efficiencies.

EFFECTIVE DATES: This Notice will be

used to evaluate projects for

discretionary new start funding

recommendations for the 1999 Fiscal

Year.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John

Day, Office of Policy Development,

FTA, Washington, D.C. 20590, (202)

366–4060.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

On December 19, 1996, FTA issued a

Notice describing the criteria it will use

to evaluate candidate projects for

discretionary New Starts funding under

Title 49 United States Code (USC)

Section 5309. These criteria replaced

those which had been in effect since the

May 18, 1984 Statement of Policy on

Major Urban Mass Transportation

Capital Investments, and incorporated

the expanded range of factors

implemented by the Intermodal Surface

Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991

(ISTEA).

Value of Travel Time Savings

The Notice established a measure for

the statutory criteria of ‘‘mobility

improvements’’ of ‘‘[t]he projected value

of aggregate travel time savings per year

(forecast year 1) anticipated from the

new investment, compared with the nobuild and TSM (Transportation System

Management) alternatives.’’ It further

established the value of total travel time

savings at 80 percent of the average

wage rate in the urbanized area.

On April 19, 1997, the Secretary of

Transportation issued ‘‘The Value of

Travel Time: Departmental Guidance for

Conducting Economic Evaluations,’’

which established department-wide

guidance for calculating the value of

time saved or lost by users of the

transportation system. The values of

time and procedures set forth in the

Departmental guidance are to be used

for all DOT cost-benefit and costeffectiveness analyses that employ

measures of the value of travel time lost

or saved. They replace mode-specific

methods for valuing travel time with a

consistent set of monetary values

applicable to all modes.

The Departmental guidance

establishes a common value of local

travel time for automobile drivers and

passengers, public transit passengers,

pedestrians, and bicyclists. Separate

values are specified for personal travel

(including commuting, shopping,

conducting personal business, and

social and recreational travel), business

or work-related travel, and travel by

truck drivers.

Hourly wages were derived from

several sources. For personal travel by

surface modes, the standard adopted is

median household income, as reported

by the Bureau of the Census, divided by

2,000 hours. This figure amounted to

$17.00 in 1995. The standard for

business travel is derived from

employee compensation figures

supplied by the Bureau of Labor

Statistics. For business travel by surface

mode (except truck drivers), the hourly

wage figure was $18.80 including fringe

benefits. For truck drivers, the hourly

wage was $16.50.

The values adopted by the

Department for travel time are as

follows: 50 percent of the wage for all

local personal travel, regardless of

mode; 70 percent of the wage for all

intercity personal travel; and 100

percent of the wage (plus fringe

benefits) for all local and intercity

business travel, including travel by

truck drivers. In special cases where

out-of-vehicle time (access, waiting, and

transfer time) on transit trips is isolated

as an object of analysis, time is valued

at 100 percent of the wage.

Using these percentages and wage

rates, the hourly value of travel time for

local travel on surface modes (transit’s

market) is as follows: $8.50 for personal

local travel by all (50 percent of the

median household income, divided by

2,000 hours); $18.80 for local business

travel, and $16.50 for truck drivers. The

hourly value for walking, waiting, and

access time associated with transit

improvements is $17.00 (100 percent of

the median household income, divided

by 2,000 hours).

The Office of the Assistant Secretary

for Transportation Policy will publish

periodic updates of the values of travel

time to be used in DOT economic

analyses. This updating will be

performed using the same data sources

used to develop the initial values,

including the Bureau of the Census, the

Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Air

Transport Association. The updating

process will automatically index the

values to reflect increases in hourly

earnings throughout the nation’s

economy.

Application of Value of Travel Time

Savings

In addition to the revised values for

travel time, the December 19, 1996

Notice is being amended to correct an

editorial error regarding the application

of travel time savings to the criteria for

mobility improvements. Specifically, in

the summary of comments to the

September 28, 1994 Policy Discussion

Paper, the Notice indicated that travel

time increases ‘‘should not be counted

against overall travel time

improvements for new riders (Federal

Register, Vol. 61, No. 245, p. 67100).’’

This position was adopted because

some people who switch to transit can

incur longer travel times, but are

deriving other benefits such as reduced

travel under congested conditions,

improved ride quality, reduced

commuting costs, etc. Lacking a reliable

means for placing a value on such

benefits, the value of the travel time

increase would be used as a surrogate

and not be deducted from overall travel

time savings.

However, section II(a)(1) of the policy

statement itself notes incorrectly that

the projected value of aggregate travel

time savings per year ‘‘is a net figure in

the sense that travel time increases

should be explicitly considered and

used to offset the time savings of those

people who experience savings (Federal

Register, Vol. 61, No. 245, p. 67105).’’

This statement is incorrect, and this

amendment removes the above sentence

from the original Notice.
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 218 / Wednesday, November 12, 1997 / Notices 60757

Valuation of Criteria Pollutant and

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The Notice established a measure for

the statutory criteria of ‘‘environmental

benefits’’ of ‘‘the value per year (forecast

year) of the forecast change in criteria

pollutant emissions and in greenhouse

gas emissions, ascribable to the

proposed new investment, calculated

according to standardized national

assumptions about the unit value of

each emission.’’ These values were to

have been determined by the

Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA). However, to date no values have

been set. This amendment strikes the

requirement that a value be placed on

the forecast change in emissions.

Definition of ‘‘Boarding Points’’ for

Evaluating Mobility Improvements

Section II(a)(1) of the Notice states

that one of the factors for rating the

mobility improvements expected to be

derived from a proposed new start

would be the absolute number of low

income households (households below

the poverty level) located within 1⁄2-mile

of boarding points associated with the

proposed system increment (Federal

Register, Vol. 61, No. 245, p. 67105).

This is still true. However, the

discussion for this measure found in the

summary of comments (Federal

Register, Vol. 61, No. 245, p. 67100)

defines ‘‘boarding points associated

with the proposed system’’ as ‘‘not

limited to stations that are part of the

proposed project,’’ and including

‘‘boarding points that will feed into the

new system.’’ In practice, this would

have included bus stops on routes

serving the new stations, as well as

existing rail stations on lines that

intersect with the new system at the

new stations (such as when a new rapid

rail line intersects with an existing

commuter rail line, and a new station is

constructed).

In developing guidance for this

measure, FTA concluded that including

all potential boarding points associated

with a new system would place an

unnecessary and unfair burden on local

agencies, would lead to reporting

inconsistencies, and lack comparability

among projects proposed for

discretionary new starts funding. As a

result, this amendment revises this

measure to include only those stations

located directly on the proposed new

facility.

Definition of ‘‘Service Area’’ for

Evaluating Operating Efficiencies

Section II(a)(3) of the December 19,

1996 Notice indicates that the measure

for ‘‘operating efficiencies’’ would be

based on the ‘‘forecast change in

operating cost per passenger mile’’ for

the new start service area, defined as

‘‘that part of the system that will be

directly affected by the proposed new

investment.’’ Though not specifically

stated, this measure would have

included the change in operating cost

per passenger mile not only for the new

facility, but also for connecting bus

routes and rail lines.

In developing guidance for the revised

criteria, FTA concluded that this

measure as defined would place an

unfair and unnecessary burden on local

agencies, would lead to reporting

inconsistencies, and lack comparability

among projects proposed for

discretionary new starts funding. As a

result, this amendment revises the

definition of ‘‘service area’’ for this

measure to include the entire transit

system.

II. Incorporation of DOT Guidance Into

FTA New Starts Criteria

The December 19, 1996 Federal

Register Notice adopted aggregate travel

time savings as one of the measures for

‘‘mobility improvements.’’ This

aggregate includes travel time savings

for all travelers affected by the proposed

transit investment; new and existing

transit riders as well as highway users,

business travel as well as personal.

Given that the DOT Guidance

establishes different values for different

trip purposes (plus additional values for

wait time and truck drivers), FTA has

adopted a weighted average approach

for valuing travel time savings (or

increases) associated with a proposed

new start, using distributions of travel

by mode and by trip purpose.

The revised value of travel time

consists of three components: out-ofvehicle time for all modes; in-vehicle

time for highway modes; and in-vehicle

time for transit modes.

Out-of-vehicle time (time spent

accessing, waiting, and transferring) is

valued at 100 percent of the wage rate,

as specified in the DOT Guidance. Using

the wage rates specified earlier, out-ofvehicle time is valued at $17.00 per

hour.

The value for in-vehicle travel time

for transit modes is a weighted average

based on trip purpose, i.e., business or

personal. The DOT Guidance uses data

from the 1990 Nationwide Personal

Transportation Survey for trip purpose

information. For surface modes, the

distribution for local travel is 95.8

percent personal, 4.2 percent business.

This results in a weighted average value

of in-vehicle time for surface modes, for

all purposes, of $8.90 per hour.

The value for in-vehicle highway time

includes an additional variable for

vehicle mix, as the DOT Guidance

establishes a separate value of time for

truck drivers. For this component, FTA

calculated a weighted average of

highway travel time based on vehicle

mix information provided by the 1995

Highway Statistics report published by

the Federal Highway Administration.

According to this report, automobiles

account for 92.4 percent of vehicle miles

traveled (VMT), and trucks account for

the remaining 7.6 percent. Using these

figures, and applying the weighted

average value of in-vehicle time for

business and personal travel as

calculated above, the resulting value for

in-vehicle highway time is $9.50 per

hour.

III. Amendments to Section 5309 FTA

New Starts Criteria

The December 19, 1996 Federal

Register Notice, ‘‘Section 5309 (Section

3(j)) FTA New Starts Criteria,’’ issued by

the Federal Transit Administration

(FTA), is amended as follows:

The sentence reading, ‘‘It is a net

figure in the sense that travel time

increases should be explicitly

considered and used to offset the time

savings of those people who experience

savings,’’ in regard to the measure for

‘‘mobility improvements,’’ is stricken

from the Notice.

The sentence reading, ‘‘Total travel

time savings will be valued at 80

percent of the average wage rate in the

urbanized area,’’ regarding the measure

for ‘‘mobility improvements,’’ is

stricken and replaced with the

following:

‘‘Travel time savings will be valued

according to trip purpose, using

standardized values established by the

Department of Transportation, based on

average national wage rates as reported

in the decennial Census. For transit

riders, travel time will be valued at 50

percent of the wage rate for non-work

travel (including commuting) and 100

percent of the wage rate for work-related

travel. The total value of travel time for

transit riders will be calculated using a

weighted average by trip purpose. For

highway users, the weighted average

will also include travel by truck drivers,

based on vehicle mix. In addition, time

spent waiting for, accessing, and

boarding transit vehicles will be valued

at 100 percent of the wage rate.’’

The phrase reading, ‘‘the value per

year (forecast year) of the forecast

change in criteria pollutant emissions

and in greenhouse gas emissions,

ascribable to the proposed new

investment, calculated according to

standardized national assumptions
60758 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 218 / Wednesday, November 12, 1997 / Notices

about the unit value of each emission,’’

regarding the measure for

‘‘environmental benefits,’’ is stricken

and replaced with the following:

‘‘[T]he annual forecast change in

criteria pollutant emissions and in

greenhouse gas emissions, ascribable to

the proposed new investment,

calculated in terms of tons for each

criteria pollutant or gas.’’

The sentence reading, ‘‘This measure

is not limited to stations that are part of

the proposed project, and includes

boarding points that will feed into the

new system,’’ contained in the

discussion of ‘‘mobility improvements’’

with respect to the definition of

‘‘boarding points,’’ is stricken and

replaced with the following:

‘‘Boarding points are defined as those

transit stations located directly on the

proposed new start transit facility.’’

In Section II(a)(3), the phrase ‘‘for that

part of the system that will be directly

affected by the proposed new

investment’’ is stricken and replaced

with the following:

‘‘[F]or the entire transit system.’’

Issue Date: November 5, 1997.

Gordon J. Linton,

Administrator.

[FR Doc. 97–29718 Filed 11–10–97; 8:45 am]

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