Travel-Time Savings Resulting from Investments in the NYC Transit System

The Move NY campaign has developed a plan to relieve traffic congestion and improve roads, bridges, and public transit in New York City. The plan calls for an overhaul of the City’s current tolling regime by implementing congestion pricing, which would toll all drivers travelling into Manhattan’s Central Business District. To predict the impact of tolling on commuter behaviors and its associated effect on revenue, economist and Move NY member Charles Komanoff developed the Balanced Transportation Analyzer (BTA). Move NY engaged the Capstone team to focus on a particular function of the BTA: estimation of travel-time savings resulting from increased investment in NYC’s transit system. Travel-time savings has broad implications for the model, as it draws more riders and revenues to the system. To improve BTA functionality, the Capstone team evaluated costs and expected traveltime savings associated with MTA-prioritized capital projects, utilizing available transit data to estimate the impacts of increased operating expenditures on travel time.