Purpose of this document

This document provides guidance to local, state, and other agencies that are responding to the requirement in the U.S. DOT’s ITS Evaluation Guidelines to produce cost accounting data. The ITS Evaluation Guidelines and the Unit Costs Guidelines presented here are for projects that are funded through the U.S. DOT’s ITS Integration Program.

Introduction

The collection, enumeration, and reporting of ITS deployment costs are important for a number of reasons. At the planning phase, cost data can be matched against the predicted benefits of a considered deployment to determine the overall feasibility of the solution and, in some cases, to assist in identifying a more cost effective approach. The cost data can also be used to assist ITS planners with budgeting funds that will be needed to support the future operations and maintenance costs of the proposed deployment. These costs will be used to update the ITS Costs Database that is available at http://www.itscosts.its.dot.gov. The ITS Costs Database contains unit costs and system costs. Note, that the unit costs data are updated once a year - 31 July. System costs summaries are added to the costs database on a regular basis.

The unit cost data is also used to support the ITS Deployment Analysis System (IDAS, http://idas.camsys.com). IDAS is the software developed by FHWA that can be used to plan ITS deployments. Since the ITS unit cost data is the source of cost data for IDAS, the database closely follows unit cost elements in the National ITS Architecture Cost Analysis and IDAS equipment list.

Submitting Cost Data

According to the ITS Evaluation Guidelines, cost accounting data should be submitted annually. The recommended due date the cost data be reported is no later than June 30. Use the spreadsheet template (unitcostJune2005.xls) to record costs data. The cost data should be submitted electronically to the ITS Integration Program Self-Evaluation Progress System at http://www.itsevaluation.net/. At this site, a project’s designated evaluation point-of-contact can upload deliverables to the system including the cost data, self-evaluation report, and other evaluation activities.

Terminology

The following information is required and further described below – subsystem lifetime, capital costs, operations and maintenance cost, and projected or experienced cost.

• Lifetime – The expected life of the subsystem or technology in years. For example, a CCTV camera may have an average lifetime of 10 years; therefore, “10” would be entered under lifetime for a CCTV camera.
  
  
• Capital Costs – Capital costs (reported in thousands of dollars) are sometimes referred as “fixed” costs. They are one-time costs that occur at or near the beginning of a project and are not required again. For example, the costs of purchasing and installing hardware are considered capital costs. In addition to the costs, please provide the dollar year of the costs – this is the year of the cost values (e.g., in 2000 dollars).
  
  
• Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Costs – O&M costs (reported in thousands of dollars), sometimes called recurring costs, continue for a number of years after an ITS element has been installed and is operational. These costs should be reported on the spreadsheet as a yearly cost. Some examples of O&M costs include the labor costs to operate a management/operations center, management costs of the center, maintenance costs for field equipment, and labor costs to maintain the field equipment. Also include such items as recurring costs for maintaining the center, leased or fiber optic lines to the field equipment. As with capital costs, please provide the dollar year of the costs – this is the year of the cost values (e.g., in 2000 dollars).
  
  
• Projected (P) – Designation for costs that are projected instead of actual cost data. Projected costs may be based on a vendor or contractor quote.
  
  
• Experienced (E) - Designation for actual costs of an implemented ITS element or elements.

Instructions for Using the Unit Cost Spreadsheet

Please use the Unit Costs Spreadsheet to collect and submit cost data. The Excel spreadsheet can be downloaded from http://www.itsevaluation.net/ (see “Unit Costs Sheet” on left menu bar) or above. Once the spreadsheet has been downloaded, please rename the file so that it can be identified for your project.

The spreadsheet is broken into ITS subsystems similar to the structure provided by IDAS and the National ITS Architecture Cost Analysis. There are 21 different subsystems with ITS elements listed under each subsystem. For example, there is a subsystem for Toll Plaza. ITS elements listed under Toll Plaza include Electronic Toll Reader, High-speed Camera, Electronic Toll Collection Software, and Electronic Toll Collection Hardware. Other ITS elements associated with electronic toll collection systems may be listed under other related subsystems, so be sure to scroll through all potentially applicable subsystems. If an ITS element was purchased and is not included on the lists, please include the element at the end of the spreadsheet.

Once an ITS element has been identified, enter the expected lifetime of the element under the Lifetime column. The next column specifies the capital cost incurred for the element. This is a one-time cost and should be listed in thousands of dollars (for example, $20,500 would be entered as 20.5). Indicate if the capital cost includes installation, or reflects only the cost of equipment. The O&M costs for an item should be entered as yearly costs ($K/year). For example, if the O&M cost to maintain a loop detector is $1,000 per year, then 1.0 would be entered into the spreadsheet.

Under the column Projected/Experienced, please indicate whether the cost is experienced with an E, or projected with a P. If both capital and O&M costs are reported, and one cost is projected and the other is experienced, list the projected or experienced designation in the same order as capital and O&M. For example, an experienced capital cost of $50K and projected O&M cost of $1.2K would be indicated as “E/P” in the Projected/Experienced column. If both the capital and O&M costs are of the same designation, please use either “E/E” or “P/P,” as appropriate.

The Description column provides information about the ITS element listed in the spreadsheet. If costs are being provided for an element different than that being described, please provide details about the element in the Notes column to the far right.

The Notes section should be used to list pertinent information regarding an element's cost. This information should include the equipment manufacturer, model number, and other important information not already listed in the description. Indicate if the cost reflects installation, or just the cost of the equipment. If a discount was received because of a large quantity order, please provide this type of information as well. A sample description for diction equipment could be: One sensor covering both directions of travel; does not include installation.

System Costs

Cost reporting for some ITS projects are best reported at the system-level. System costs consists of multiple ITS elements and typically represents the total cost of an ITS project or portion of an ITS project. For example, a 511 traveler information telephone service may be difficult to disaggregate into unit cost items because of linkages to traffic, weather, and/or incident management systems. In cases such as these, the system costs may be reported at the bottom of the unit cost spreadsheet. Although line item costs for system costs will vary depending on each project, samples include: project planning and design, hardware/equipment, software integration, labor, and other operations & maintenance costs. Subcomponents can be identified within major project categories with associated costs reported. In addition to these costs, please provide both a description and the dollar year of the system costs –the year of the cost values.

Please make sure your project description, as listed on www.itsevaluation.net is accurate as this information is needed for the system cost summary write-up.

Below are links to two sample system cost summaries:

A multi-modal 511 traveler information system
http://www.benefitcost.its.dot.gov/its/benecost.nsf/ID/AC2AA0BC970717B385256E4B0051C4F3

A road weather information system
http://www.benefitcost.its.dot.gov/ITS/benecost.nsf/ID/ED80CCA32A9685DB85256E4E0066BA96

Additional Cost Information

The project is encouraged to submit any additional cost data information collected during the project lifetime. This information may be useful to the ITS Joint Programs Office and can be submitted in whatever form the data is stored by the project management. Additionally, if information is available for any other ITS elements listed, please include those costs.