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Surface Transportation Efficiency Analysis Model (STEAM)User Manual

Description of Exhibit 2.2: Consumer Surplus

Exhibit 2.2 depicts the user benefit and consumer surplus calculation in a graph. The graph shows that benefits to existing users are counted fully, while benefits to new users are discounted by half. The reason for this is that the exact price at which new users would change their travel behavior. To account for the fact that some travelers would change their behavior at a smaller change in price per trip, we discount the total benefit by half. Benefits to existing users are depicted as a rectangular area on the graph, while benefits to new users are depicted as a triangular area.

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