Evaluation & Appraisal

Evaluation can be conducted at various stages of the project lifecycle, including outline appraisal as part of a feasibility study, detailed appraisal while a measure is being designed and developed, and post-implementation evaluation after a measure has been implemented. Tracking studies can also be conducted to assess how impacts and user responses change over time once a measure is in operation.

Our expertise in this area was recognised by the European Commission when we were awarded the contract to lead the MAESTRO project, which produced comprehensive guidelines on how to evaluate transport demonstration projects. The MAESTRO approach has been used as the basis for the evaluation of many European Commission funded projects in recent years and remains one of the most used tools to be developed through European research funding.

By its very nature evaluation can be conducted against various indicators (both qualitative and quantitative) that are relevant to a particular measure in order to establish its impacts. These can be presented individually or brought together using cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness analysis or multi criteria analysis. This is recognised within the Department for Transport’s appraisal framework, NATA (New Approach to Appraisal) which brings together the elements of a scheme appraisal in a standard format so that the impacts of the scheme can be judged against the Government's five objectives for transport as outlined in the White Paper A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone (DETR, 1998).

The elements to be included within an appraisal framework can cover a wide range of issues, all of which relate to TTR’s day-to-day work:

• Behavioural changes
• Economic aspects, including both direct and external costs and benefits
• Traffic impacts (e.g. congestion, journey times etc)
• Environmental and energy impacts
• Safety impacts
• Accessibility impacts
• Equity issues
• User and stakeholder perceptions

Because they can be applied at all stages of a project lifecycle, evaluation and appraisal techniques can be used in various different ways:

• to compare scheme proposals in order to make the best choice
• to make a decision as to whether a proposed scheme should go ahead at all
• to check detailed design options during the implementation process
• to monitor implemented projects in order to optimise operational regimes
• to evaluation past schemes in order to improve future implementations

The techniques to be applied in each of these types of evaluation and appraisal will also vary, with cost benefit analysis being common when looking ahead to making future investment decisions and other techniques such as cost effectiveness and multi criteria analysis being more appropriate for the comparison of alternative options.

For more information on how we can help you and some examples of our experience within this area of expertise, please click here for further details