| When planners carry out a regional development project, they go through many planning phases. Initially, they mainly discuss macro variables such as growth of population or GDP. Econometrics, location theory, or urban growth theory might be the basic analytical tools. As the planning phases proceed, the focus shifts to more specific matters. For example, with a transportation highway project, it is essential to conduct, for the whole region where project effects are expected, a detailed network flow analysis using modern engineering tools.; It has been traditional to conduct these analyses separately because they are in different research fields. In practice, the economic analysis and transportation network analysis have typically been carried out by different sections of the planning bureau at different times. These planning lags have resulted in unrealistic solutions in infrastructure planning. There are many mismatched transportation infrastructures that are seldom utilized by users and do not contribute to the regional economy. Examples can be seen both in developing countries with infrastructures built by development aid organizations and in developed countries with expensive infrastructures built by governments.; When a country is going through a specific economic condition, such as the Asian financial crises that took place in Thailand in 1997, it is very important to make a huge investment in large infrastructure projects. Under such conditions, the traditional segregated approach will not yield the infrastructure planning needed for such a specific economic restructuring purpose.; To compensate for this problem, in this research, a transportation network analysis is linked with the CGE (computable general equilibrium) model. This dissertation focuses on developing an interregional transportation prototype model that considers spatial economy and that can be used for urban transportation investment planning and social policy making. It extends and modifies the AGIE (applied general interregional equilibrium) model developed by Isard and Azis (1998).; To verify capabilities of the model, the model is applied to selected regions surrounding Ithaca. Important imprecations are derived from a hypothetical road improvement. The model demonstrates the regional economic impact on the study area simultaneously with an accurate change in travel time and volume on highways. |
