David A. Bolger Tel. FRA Administrator Jolene M. Molitoris said, President Clinton is committed to reducing congestion and increasing safety through strategic investments in transportation. We believe this model will help our partners decide how to spend limited transportation funds and achieve these goals. This approach has practical applications across all modes of transportation, Molitoris added.
Users have the ability to modify the model to meet their community's specific needs.
Federal investment policies require a systemic analysis of expected benefits and costs, including both quantitative and qualitative measures of all infrastructure investments. The 1994 executive order that established principles for federal infrastructure investment emphasizes the need for a broad-based treatment of benefits and costs. The computer model takes this into account and includes categories such as net present value, economic rate of return, including environmental benefits, and financial rate of return. FRA will sponsor several demonstrations of the model to public policy decision-makers during this summer in Washington. The software will be available for a nominal fee to MPOs and state and local governments.