nymtc regional freight plan - New York Metropolitan Transportation ...

A Freight Plan for the NYMTC Region
Table 6.6
STEAM Benefit Comparison between Improvement Packages
and Baseline Condition
(In Millions of 2002 Dollars)
Policy and
Operations Package
Highway Systems
Package
Rail Systems
Package
NYMTC Region
User Benefit $25 $110 $15
Societal Benefit $1 $6 $0.7
Total Benefit $26 $116 $16
Rest of BPM Model Coverage
User Benefit $11 $39 $53
Societal Benefit $11 $11 $6
Total Benefit $21 $50 $59
Total
User Benefit $36 $149 $68
Societal Benefit $12 $17 $7
Total Benefit $48 $166 $75
• 6.3 Environmental Impacts
Table 6.7 contains a summary of the environmental impact analysis for the various freight
movement improvement alternatives. Improvements are first classified as having an adverse
or beneficial impact. Three levels of environmental impact are then used to define the magnitude
of the impact: no impact, moderate or site-specific impact, and significant impact.
Due to the size of the study areas and the absence of final engineering designs in most
cases, the environmental analysis is qualitative in nature. Generally, policy alternatives
have little or no impact on the environment. Road widening projects and new construction
generally result in the greatest environmental impacts. Projects with impacts to environmental
justice communities have been noted in the “demographics” column of the
table. Highlights of the analysis for each improvement package are presented below.
Cambridge Systematics, Inc. 6-10