The Balanced Transportation Analyzer:
Design and Test Your Own
Mass Transit and Automobile Pricing Plan

The analysis underlying the report "A Bolder Plan: Balancing Mass Transit and Congestion Pricing in New York City," was performed using a specially designed computer model. This model ties together every facet of passenger transport in New York City, including transit, auto, taxi and bike; incorporates the effects of price changes and time savings on individuals' travel choices and aggregate travel demand; takes account of the interactivity between traffic volumes and speeds; and factors in the costs to upgrade the region's commuter rail, subway and bus systems.

We call our model the Balanced Transportation Analyzer, or BTA - "balanced" because it manifests the equilibria within and between the different travel modes, and "analyzer" because interested parties may use it to examine the assumptions underlying our findings and also test the effects of other assumptions and policy choices.

The BTA provides a powerful and nuanced sketch-planning tool to test what-if scenarios. Use it to design your own pricing plan. There you'll find 10 "policy choices" - cordon fee amount, how far transit fares are to be dialed down, a "subway space index" and so forth - and a dozen key results, ranging from traffic reduction percentages to the net amount of new funds available for mass transit. If you feel your plan trumps ours, let us know.

For a user friendly version of the BTA, click here.

To see the full computerized model, with all the calculations and assumptions underlying the BTA, click here.