Federal lands account for approximately 29 percent of the land area of the United States, principally in the western part of the country. These lands include those owned by the National Park Service (NPS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

Transit can serve as a cost-effective method of accommodating an increasing number of visitors to popular Federal lands while preserving the natural environment and providing visitors with a pleasant experience. Transit services have been put in place or are the process of being developed in the most heavily visited National Parks and in some smaller NPS sites without parking facilities. In Fiscal Year 2001, NPS and FHWA set aside approximately $8.4 million from the Federal Lands Highway Program (FLHP) for transit projects. USFWS offers transit services to the National Wildlife Refuge at Sanibel Island, Florida, and the Santa Anna National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. A transit system is being developed on both USFS and NPS lands to serve Grand Canyon National Park.

A 2001 study of transit needs on Federal Lands managed by the Interior Department identified significant transit needs at NPS, BLM, and USFWS sites. Total transit needs for the 20-year period (2001 to 2020) are estimated to be $1.71 billion in 1999 dollars ($17.45 billion in 2000 dollars). NPS will have the largest transit needs, estimated at just under $1,554 million, followed by USFWS with estimated needs of $126 million, and BLM with estimated needs of $30 million. (In 2000 dollars, $1,586 million, $129 million and $31 million, respectively.)

Appendices A, B, and C describe the modeling techniques used to generate the estimates of future investment requirements highlighted in Chapters 7 through 10, focusing on changes in methodology since the previous C&P report. All three models incorporate benefit-cost analysis in their selection of transportation capital improvements.

Appendix A describes changes in the Highway Economic Requirements System (HERS), which is used to generate estimates of investment requirements for highway preservation and highway and bridge capacity expansion. Significant changes to HERS include the addition of incident delay to the calculations of congestion levels; updating the routines for estimating vehicle emissions costs; and refinements to procedures incorporating travel demand elasticity in the model.

The National Bridge Investment Analysis System (NBIAS) is used for the first time in this report as the primary tool for estimating bridge preservation investment requirements. The model, which is described in Appendix B, includes routines for estimating investment for both bridge replacement and bridge repair and rehabilitation.

Appendix C presents the Transit Economic Requirements Model (TERM), used to estimate transit investment requirements in urbanized areas. TERM estimates the funding that will be required to replace and rehabilitate transit vehicles and other assets; to invest in new assets to accommodate future transit ridership growth; and to improve operating performance to targeted levels. The results in this report reflect revisions in estimated depreciation schedules for rail vehicles, facilities and stations.