EEM1 (road infrastructure) Appendix 5 - Vehicle operating costs

Introduction

This appendix provides values for vehicle operating costs (VOC) categorised into running costs, road surface related costs, speed change cycle costs, congestion costs, and costs while at a stop. Values are provided by vehicle classes and for standard traffic compositions on four different road categories.

Vehicle classes

The vehicle classes are defined in appendix A2.2. The VOC for each vehicle class are based on the weighted average costs of the vehicles of different types within each class.

Standard traffic composition

The VOC are given for the standard traffic compositions using the four road categories defined in appendix A2.2, namely: urban arterial, urban other, rural strategic and rural other. The road category costs contained in the tables in this appendix are for the 'all time periods' traffic mix.

Nature of costs in this appendix

The VOC in this appendix are provided as resource costs, ie, exclusive of duties and indirect taxation, such as excise and other taxes on fuel, import duties, and GST on all cost inputs.

Regression equations

To assist analysts, regression equations are provided which can be used to predict the VOC when using spreadsheets or other applications. Note: The regression coefficients vary between vehicle classes and road categories.

The regression equations were used to generate the corresponding VOC tables so the results will be consistent, irrespective of which approach is used.

Minor differences will arise when calculating road category costs from individual vehicle class costs due to the regression equations being developed from the road category data. Where high precision is required, the vehicle class equations should be summed and used in preference to the road category equations.

Components of VOC

The total VOC are calculated by adding the following components:

VOC = base running costs by speed and gradient

+ road roughness costs (if appropriate)

+ road surface texture costs (if appropriate)

+ pavement elastic deflection costs (if appropriate)

+ congestion costs (if appropriate)

+ bottleneck costs (if appropriate)

+ speed change cycle costs (if appropriate).

All components except the base running costs are marginal costs that reflect the additional cost due to that component.