Office of Naval Research - National Transportation Library

pollution, accidents, highway congestion and infrastructure maintenance. This means thatthe true cost of the container shipments are $631 and $1,858, and not $500 and $1,460, andthat between 26-27 percent of ($0.58 and $0.32 per mile) of the full costs are not paid for bythe shipper (Figure 26). Table 12 shows the components of the $0.58 per-mile external costsof moving a container from Boston to New York.Figure 26 – Components of the External Costs of Moving a Container from Boston to New YorkNoise5%External Costs of Moving a Containerby Truck from Boston to New York City(based on $0.56/Mile)Accidents7%Fuel Costs1%Infrastructure16%Air pollution11%Congestion60%Source: University of New Orleans, National Ports and Waterways Institute, “ThePublic Benefits of the Short-Sea Intermodal System,” Prepared for the Short SeaCooperative Program (SCOOP), November 2004.Below, the components of the external costs of shipping a container from Boston to NewYork City by truck, as calculated by the University of New Orleans SCOOP study andaugmented by other research findings, are described.Avoided Costs of Urban CongestionExternal costs of congestions not borne by the direct users (i.e., costs not paid for throughthe private time costs of delays), measured as a function of the time of day, truck route, andpeak-hour traffic at representative segment of the Interstate Highway 95, are estimated at$0.34 per mile applied to the 225-mile segment, amounting to a congestion cost of $77.08per trip. External costs of highway congestion further translate to future highway capacityconstraints, as described in Section 5-4.Avoided Costs of Highway Accidents and SpillsBased on the total network costs for all vehicles, the FHWA Highway Cost Allocation Study(HCAS) estimates the external costs of accidents that are not borne by the users of thehighway system at about 9 cents per vehicle miles travelled on urban highways. Forcombination trucks, the HCAS estimated the external costs of accidents at 6.9 cents per mile.The SCOOP study assumed the external accident costs to be lower, at 3.1 cents per mile forrural segments of the corridor and 0.9 cents for the urban segments, amounting to $14.94 inexternal accidents costs for the 225-mile Boston to New York trip.ONR SSS Final Report 57