交通工程专业英语--7-25课文.docVIP

Unit 7 Economics and Transportation Engineering Text An economic analysis should not be carried out as all afterthought.It should be used as part of a continuous process，starting with the objectives of the prposed transportation project (can these objectives be satisfied in any other way?)，running through the entire planning and design process，and only ending，as a final summing up，with the overall evaluation. It should consider the following questions：Project identification. Which projects or policies should be considered as possible solutions to a particular transport need? ②Establishing rough priorities．Which projects and policies should be considered in detail?Detailed evaluation．Which costs and benefits are relevant to the evaluation，how should they be measured，and how can they best be presented as an index of priority?Project selection．Should this project be selected，should it be rejected，or should it be postponed?Economics is often overlooked as an aid to transportation planning and design．Yet any transportation engineering problem involes a whole series of essentially economic decisions．In the area of design，for example，the transportation engineer must choose materials，select an overall design concept，and then combine the component parts of the scheme into an effective，and economical，whole．A river crossing could thus be by ferry boat，causeway，or bridge．In the latter case it could be in steel，concrete，or timber．It could be suspended，arched，or simply supported．What should the engineer choose?The range of choice is not usually as large as this．Some soutions will be physically infeasible (e.g.，by lack of suitable foundations for an arched bridge), but important choices will remain．In the absence of a rigorous economic analysis，the designer may make these choices on the basis of：Experience，which may or may not cover an adequate range of options．Preconceptions as to what is desirable (e.g., one solution uses less material)．An innate view of mathemat