Roads Economic Decision Model (RED) - Basic Steps
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This software installs the Roads Economic Decision Model (RED) developed by SSATP. RED performs an economic evaluation of road investments and maintenance alternatives and is customized to the characteristics of unpaved roads such as:
- High uncertainty of the assessment of traffic, road condition, and future maintenance
- Periods during a year with disrupted passability
- Levels of service and corresponding road user costs defined not only through roughness
- High potential to influence economic development
- Beneficiaries other than motorized road users
RED is a consumer surplus model designed to help evaluate investments in low-volume roads. The model is implemented in a series of Excel workbooks that:
- Collect all user inputs
- Present the results in a user-friendly manner
- Estimate vehicle operating costs and speeds
- Perform an economic comparison of investments and maintenance alternatives
- Perform sensitivity, switch-off values, and stochastic risk analyses
The model computes benefits accruing to normal, generated, and diverted traffic, as a function of a reduction in vehicle operating and time costs. It also computes safety benefits, and model users can add other benefits (or costs) to the analysis, such as those related to non-motorized traffic, social service delivery, and environmental impacts.
