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Anticipating and Evaluating the Impacts of Changes to Highway Networks and their Operations Prof. Kara Kockelman, Professor of Transportation Engineering, University of Texas, AustinAbstract Transportation investments are nearing $1,000 per capita annually in the U.S., and the Highway Trust Fund has been depleted. Such significant investments and budget-constrained contexts demand careful decision-making and thoughtful cost-benefit analysis. A toolkit has been developed for comprehensive assessment of system impacts for network expansion, tolling, reversible lanes, incident management and other projects with only project expenditures, link attributes, and traffic counts as required inputs. The toolkit uses a self-contained travel demand model to predict future and alternative scenario traffic volumes, travel times, traveler welfare, crash counts, emissions and toll revenues, while providing project-summary measures, including net present values and benefit-cost ratios. The toolkit allows for early assessment of major projects along abstracted networks, using hundreds of coded links (rather than thousands), providing results in a matter of minutes (rather than days). This presentation will describe the model and a variety of case study applications in Austin and Dallas-Ft. Worth. The scenarios include capacity expansion projects along congested links, variable-rate tolling of major interstates, and operational strategies such as rapid incident clearance, ramp metering, and variable speed limits along congested corridors. Results suggest which projects merit further consideration by summarizing and monetizing impacts. Biographical Sketch: Dr. Kockelman holds PhD, MS, and BS degrees in civil engineering, a Masters of City Planning, and a minor in economics from UC Berkeley. The recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, Berkeley’s University Medal, ASCE’s Huber and Bartholomew Awards, and MIT’s Technology Review Top 100 Young Innovators Award, Dr Kockelman has authored over 90 journal articles, nearly all of which involve transportation data analysis.  Her primary research interests include the statistical modeling of urban systems (including models of travel behavior, trade, & location choice), the economic impacts of transport policy, crash occurrence & consequences, energy & climate issues (via-à-vis transport & land use decisions), and transport policy-making. Chair of TRB’s Travel Survey Methods committee for several years, and currently serving on TRB’s economics, statistical methods, and land development committees, Dr Kockelman and her terrific students presently conduct research under NSF, NCHRP, SHRP, TxDOT and SWUTC sponsorship.