Case Study:

SPARTACUS

Application

Policy Scenarios

To test alternative policies and policy combinations, the following approach was taken:

A "Reference Scenario" was constructed, based on the existing network and committed projects as well as baseline land use forecasts.
A list of policy ideas was drafted. These fell under the categories of land use, pricing, regulation, and transportation investments.
The mechanism for modeling the policy in the SPARTACUS system was identified. In some cases, measures had to be tested indirectly. For example, land use controls were modeled as a redistribution in employment and population, consistent with the objectives of the controls.
Individual policy elements (e.g., changes in transit fares) were tested and screened using the MEPLAN run results only. This helped demonstrate the effects of individual measures as well as check that the model system produces reasonable results.
Based on the MEPLAN results, the most promising policy elements were selected for further testing using the entire SPARTACUS system to generate indicators.
Combinations of policies were selected for analysis. In some cases, effective policies were combined to evaluate joint impacts. Policies were also combined when one policy could offset the negative side-effects of another policy. For example, lower transit fares and teleworking could offset some of the negative effects of higher car pricing. As policy combinations were analyzed, additional policy elements were added incrementally, while policies that had a negative or inconsequential impact were dropped.
For each policy combination, the absolute or percent change for the indicators were calculated with respect to the Reference Scenario. Also, pairwise comparisons of scenarios were performed to evaluate the effects of adding or dropping individual policy elements.
Alternative scenarios were also tested, based on exogenous variables, such as higher-than-projected growth in population.
The results were compared for all three test cities.

[TOP]