Abstract
The appraisal of road transport projects is primarily based on the assessment of economic benefits, which are estimated by comparing the total discounted costs calculated for a base case against that for the project case. This is essentially an economic balance analysis. A similar analytical framework is proposed for comparing the total energy used by different modes of road transport for the base case and project case. The proposed energy balance framework has been implemented in the new Highway Development and Management (HDM-4) model. This can be used to calculate total energy consumption at project and network level analyses of road investment policies and strategies, differences in the consumption of renewable and non-renewable fuels by non-motorised and motorised road transport modes, energy use during road-works, and the total national energy consumption in the road sector. This permits comparisons to be made between different modes of road transport and thereby influence policy on long-term investments in the road sector. The application of the energy balance framework is demonstrated using case studies featuring typical examples of road investment schemes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 23-35 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Institution of Civil Engineers. Proceedings. Transport |
| Volume | 161 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Feb 2008 |
Keywords
- environment
- roads & highways
- management
