Overview
APPLICATION ASSIGNMENT #2
(I have seen this case a few times over the years without attribution. I have now seen it being attributed to Dennis L. Dresang.)
There are nine steps to Application Assignment #2. They are set out in the following pages. Please use the policy process as we have described it during this semester. If there are steps that you think were not done or done incorrectly/incompletely, please note them in an appendix to your paper and describe what you would have done or how you would have done it differently.
You will produce one six-to-eight-page paper (not including attachments) for this application assignment. There are more instructions regarding this paper on the pages that follow.
You are J. La Rue, senior policy analyst in the Community Transportation Planning Division of the State Department of Transportation (SOOT). One of your major responsibilities is to work with local com munities in the state to help them assess their transportation needs and to make appropriate recommendations for action. At the top of your agenda is a request for assistance from the city manager of East Wallingford, a rapidly growing community of 45,000 people that has been plagued by chronic traffic congestion. As an ace cost-effectiveness analyst, your task in this exercise is to analyze East Wallingford's transportation situation and decide which of four main alternatives-a northern by pass, a southern bypass, street widening, or a bus-plus-perimeter-parking system should be supported. (This is the same information as in Application Assignment #1.)
STEPS TO FOLLOW
Step One:
Study the map of greater East Wallingford provided in Application Assignment #1 and re-familiarize yourself with the physical structure of the community.
Step Two:
Re-read the "Preliminary Problem Analysis'' memo prepared for you by your assistant, M. Ubahn (and attached at the end of Application Assignment #1). It provides important information about the dimensions of East Wallingford's traffic problem, including a discussion of certain political constraints.
Step Three:
Complete Form 3 (attached), "Construction and Maintenance Cost Worksheet," by calculating the basic construction/acquisition and maintenance/operating costs of each of the four alternatives. Use the information provided on Form 4, "Cost Specifications," as a basis for your computations. Note that these costs represent costs to the state; for the purposes of this analysis, additional costs to be borne by other levels of government are ignored.
Step Four:
Complete Form 5, "Environmental and Social Cost Worksheet." Note that you are to assign a cost figure, from O to 100, for each alternative. The figures represent your estimates of the relative costs of each of these strategies. It is not possible to put a price tag on environmental and social costs, but you can and should include these costs in your comparisons of the advantages and disadvantages of the four alternatives. Arrive at reasonable estimates of relative costs based on your reading of the situation in East Wallingford. As the instructions on Form 5 indicate, take into consideration the likely environmental damage (air and water pollution, noise pollution, destruction of wild life habitat, etc.) that will follow from each alternative. Social costs include dislocation and safety issues. Although your primary focus is on East Wallingford, as a state analyst you should also consider general issues, such as the likely effects on urban sprawl and the preservation of farmland.
Step Five:
Complete Form 6, "Analytical Worksheet I." This form allows you to combine your cost calculations from Forms 3 and 5. Note that it is necessary to translate your costs from the "Construction and Maintenance Cost Worksheet" (Form 3) into terms compatible with a 100-point scale. You can do this easily by dividing your total for each alternative from Form 3 by 10,000. Note that you also must decide on weights for each of the costs on Form 6. See the instructions on Form 6 for details.
Step Six:
Complete Form 7, "Analytical Worksheet II." Refer again to Ubahn's memorandum and calculate the cost per minute of reducing average trip times by following each of the outlined alternatives; for instance, Ubahn estimates that the Northway will reduce travel time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes; as you have already calculated the cost of constructing this highway, simply divide the cost by the minutes saved. These calculations provide you with a set of cost-benefit ratios, which you should use as a part of your basis for deciding which alternative to recommend.
Step Seven:
Based on the cost-effectiveness ratios you calculated on Form 7 (Analytical Worksheet II) and any other information you consider pertinent, choose an alternative. Use a memorandum format (such as the Memorandum Form) to outline and justify your choice by composing a brief memorandum to your supervisor, the Director of the Division of Community Transportation of the State Department of Transportation.
In your memorandum you should have various sections where you will provide background information, your analysis in detail, and your recommendation.
Step Eight:
You will add one final Section to your memorandum that will be entitled “Personal Reflection” and you will address the following questions:
1. What was the relationship between your values (as an analyst) and “objective” data that you used? Is it possible to exclude your own personal feelings (biases) entirely when making decisions of this sort? What did you do specifically to keep your own biases in check? Ideally, who do you think should set the “weights” for a cost-effectiveness analysis of a public project?
2.In this exercise you were forced to use certain evaluative criteria (see Form 6: economic – construction/acquisition/maintenance; environmental; social and Form 7: effectiveness measured by time saved). Reflecting upon your Goeller Scorecard from Application Assignment #1, what other criteria do you feel should have been considered in making the recommendation? Why?
3.Although it would seem from the facts presented in this case that none of the alternatives would satisfy all groups in East Wallingford, do you think that there is an "optimal" solution that could be found? Do you think that most conflicts over public policy arise simply from misunderstanding and a lack of information such that good rational analysis will provide acceptable solutions? Why or why not?
4.Is there a different alternative that was not one of the four considered that you think might be better than the one selected? What is it and why?
Step Nine:
Upload your memorandum, all the completed Forms, and any other information or materials you have included for this Application Assignment to Canvas.
Technical Paper Requirements (please read and carefully follow):
1. Your paper will be at least six but not more than eight full pages double-spaced (no more, no less), not including your completed forms or other attachments. Use true double-spacing throughout the paper. (DO NOT add extra line spacing before or after paragraphs. This will normally require you to figure out how to change default formatting as the default is to have extra line spacing after a hard return or in-between paragraphs.)
I know this will be hard. I expect you to plan, ponder, write, rewrite, review, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite (you get the picture). This assignment could easily be much more than three to four pages long; however, I want you to write effectively, efficiently, succinctly, and well. This is a key point in written communication. That is why I have put a page limit. You will have many times in life where you must say what you want and need to say in a limited space. This will help you practice doing so.
2. Do not use a title page, headers, or footers, except you may use pagination if desired. Use the memorandum format like the one provided.
3. Use 12-point Calibri font (a sans serif font). This document is written using Calibri 12-point font. (For distinction purposes, a sans serif font does not have the straight or curved lines at the beginning and end of letters like the letters in this sentence. This font is 12-point Times New Roman and is considered a serif font.) If you do not have access to Calibri font, use Times New Roman 13-point font and tell me in the last sentence of your paper that you don’t have access to Calibri on your computer. If you must use Times New Roman font, you will probably need to change the font size to 13 as it typically defaults to 11-point or 12-point font.
4. Use one-inch margins all around.
5. Please use only Word or pdf format for your paper. Although Canvas allows Pages, I ask that you not use Pages because I have noted that at times when grading it will not upload correctly into Canvas. If you have Pages, then convert it to a pdf before uploading it to Canvas.
6. Your paper should follow these instructions, be well written, and be organized. Please make sure you check for things such as typos, proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling. You will lose points for those types of mistakes. I want to help you not only learn the material in the class but to also become better writers. You may want to check with the writing center here on campus for help. They are willing and able to help you, but they need sufficient time to review your paper and give you input on it. You should plan on writing and then revising your paper (maybe multiple times) to make sure it says what you think it says and what you want it to say before you submit it. (For comparison purposes, when I write papers, I never have less than seven or eight major revisions, and sometimes many more than that.) Recognize that the writing center may need some time to review your work so don’t send it to them and expect results in 30 minutes.
7. I strongly suggest that you have the Writing Center review your paper before you submit it.
Happy analysis, evaluation, and writing!
FORM 3
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE COST WORKSHEET
Costs
Alternatives
Construction/ Acquisition
Maintenance/ Operating
Total
Southway
$
$
$
Northway
$
$
$
Street widening
$
$
$
Perimeter parking
$
$
$
FORM 4
COST SPECIFICATIONS
Annualized Construction/ Acquisition Costs*
Highways constructed mainly in residential areas$200,000/mile
Highways constructed mainly in undeveloped areas$100,000/mile
Street widening$100,000/mile
Parking lot construction$20,000/acre
Bus acquisition$70,000/bus
Maintenance/Operating Costs
Highway maintenance$10,000/mile/year
Additional maintenance for widened$10,000/mile/year
Parking lot maintenance$1,000/acre/year
Bus maintenance$1,000/bus/year
Bus operation$30,000/bus/year
Although construction/acquisition expenditures are, in a sense, "one-time" costs, these figures represent annual costs to the state given the way the investments would be financed. This allows you to sum up construction/acquisition and maintenance/operating costs and to compare expenditures on an annual basis. Moreover, to simplify the analysis, these costs have already been standardized to account for the differential depreciation of these investments; thus, the fact that buses need to be replaced more often than highways is already reflected in this cost structure. Finally, these figures represent costs to the state; additional costs borne by other levels of government are ignored in this exercise.
FORM 5
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL COST WORKSHEET
Costs
Alternatives
Environmental
Social
Southway
Northway
Street widening
Perimeter parking
Instructions: Review the map of East Wallingford, re-read Ubahn's memorandum, and use any other resources you like to estimate the relative environmental and social costs of these four alternatives. Assign a number, from O to 100, to each alternative for each type of cost (0 = low cost; 100 = high cost). There is no one "correct" set of answers to these cost calculations. You should, however, try to assign relative costs that reflect the situation in East Wallingford as accurately as possible. The easiest (although not necessarily the most precise way) to do this is to rank the alternatives against one another (1 through 4) on each dimension; then assign cost figures that reflect the ranking.
FORM 6
ANALYTICAL WORKSHEET I
Weighted Costs
Economic
Social (S) Weight=
(Construction/
Acquisition &
Alternatives
Maintenance) (EC) Weight =
Environmental (EN) Weight =
Total (TC)
Southway
Northway
Street widening
Perimeter parking
Instructions: This form allows you to combine your cost calculations from Forms 3 and 5. To complete this form, you must (1) translate your construction and maintenance costs into numbers compatible with a 100-point scale, and (2) assign weights to each of the three costs (EC, EN, and S) in this table.
To translate your construction and maintenance costs, simply divide each of the totals from Form 3 by 10,000. Do this now and make a note of your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
Now you must assign weights to each of the three costs in this table. To do this, first think about the relative importance of economic factors, environmental fac tors, and social factors in a decision of this kind. Are they equally important? Is one slightly more important than the other two? Is one far more important than the other two? Your answer will depend on your own (or your organization's) values. After you have thought about this, choose numbers that reflect your evaluation. For instance, if you think that economic fac tors are twice as important as environ mental and social factors, assign a weight of 2 to EC and weights of 1 each to EN and S. If you think they are all equally important, assign weights of 1 to each. Feel free to use fractions: for example, you might weigh EC at 1.5, EN at 1, and Sat 1.25. Note the weights you have decided on in the appropriate spaces in the table columns. Then multiply the weight for each factor by the cost of that factor for each of the alternatives (from Forms 3 and 5) and enter the products in the table. Finally, add across the rows to determine the total costs (TC) of each alternative.
FORM 7
ANALYTICAL WORKSHEET II
Costs
Alternatives
Reduction in Trip Time (RTT)
Effectiveness (TC/RTT)
Southway
Northway
Street widening
Perimeter parking
Instructions: Calculate the effectiveness of each alternative by dividing the total cost (TC) (from Form 6) by the reduction in trip time (RTT) (from Ubahn's memo – Application Assignment #1). This cost-benefit ratio (TC/RTT) should then be used to guide your selection of the ap propriate alternative. The lower the cost per mile, the more attractive the alternative, other things being equal.
MEMORANDUM FORM
TO:City Manager
East Wallingford
CC:Director, Division of Community Transportation Planning
State Department of Transportation
FROM:J. La Rue
State Department of Transportation
RE:Proposed Resolution of Traffic Congestion
DATE:
BACKGROUND:
ANALYSIS:
RECOMMENDATION:
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: