Environmental and Social Costs Impacts of Northeast Corridor Transportation System Technologies

Rational decision making in the transportation sector cannot be undertaken without consideration of the important externalities or third party effects. This paper presents the quantification of the incommensurable and imputed monetary values impacts of the transportation system technologies planned for the Northeast Corridor on: noise, air pollution, aesthetics, safety, and air and highway congestion. A final tableau of social benefits summarizes the imputed monetary values of incremental environmental and social impacts of the following modes—high-speed rail, tracked air cushion vehicles, STOL, and VTOL—over the social costs of a 1975 base case composed of auto, bus, conventional air, and the continuation of current demonstration rail projects underway. The magnitudes of environmental and external nonuser benefits are compared with the magnitudes of direct benefit categories represented by net revenues and value of users' time savings.