Benefit cost analysis libraries

Question

I was wondering if there are any opensource libraries that are geared towards transportation ben/cost analysis.

I currently use microBENCOST and would like to build my own solution. I'm most comfortable with C/c++ and Python.

cheers

Answer 1

microBENCOST is purchased by the californian department of transport and really it seems a suitable tool. What is missing? If you need something particular that is not yet implemented, maybe you should consider to write your own. It's really difficult to find something better

Answer 2

I don't think there are any alternatives, considering MicroBENCOST appears to be a special project developed for the state of California, and transportation analysis is about as niche as it gets.

If you are going to build your own solution, you will probably want to look into the various math libraries available to Python - particularly numpy and/or scipy.

Answer 3

My girlfriend works for a transportation planning firm, and they use a variety of models developed in SPSS, with a lot of data munging in Excel and visualization in ArcGIS. As far as turnkey solutions go, though, I think you're going to be more or less on your own.

Assuming you want to move on to something a bit newer/more maintainable than a DOS application like MicroBENCOST, though, I would second the recommendation to become comfortable with Scipy, and then start building up a toolbox of statistical models based on the original application. For other types of modeling, you may also find SimPy useful; it doesn't do the simplified cost/benefit analysis that MicroBENCOST does, but it may be applicable for more open-ended design problems where original discrete simulation models are called for.