Source: Unsplash / Yeshi Kangrang (@omgitsyeshi)
Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA) Capstone
The attached report is authored by a domestic capstone team of four Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) fellows at Cornell Institute for Public Affairs, working in consultation with Fitch Ratings, with the objective of addressing the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on toll roads in the United States.
The CIPA Capstone is an in-depth, semester-long program designed for students who are in their second year of the MPA degree. Over the course of the program, students engage in rigorous consultancy projects to propose relevant and actionable solutions to well-defined policy or management problems posed by their clients. The Capstone projects allow students to learn about managing projects and undertaking policy analysis within the constraints of various political environments and organizations. CIPA Fellows use the reports produced in the project to meet their CIPA writing requirement for graduation.
Fall 2020 Capstone Project with Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings Inc. is one of the three global leaders in credit ratings and research. Fitch has more than 4,500 employees globally, and its infrastructure and finance units are located worldwide. Fitch is interested to understand how behavioral changes and vehicle usage is affecting toll road assets, and what are the potential impacts. For example,
- Did the pandemic impact the usage of all public roads and toll roads differently in states that had varying levels of pandemic-related travel restrictions?
- Did the pandemic similarly impact the use of toll roads by passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles?
- Did the pandemic impact the average length of trips on toll roads?
The team obtained information on changes in travel behavior based on new state policies developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as well as changes in traffic volume and transactions, to explore potential impacts of COVID-19 on toll roads in five states in the United States: California, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Acknowledgments
We sincerely wish to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Professor Laurie J. Miller for her encouragement and support in completing our project. We would also like to extend our thanks to Professor John H. Foote who facilitated us with the necessary resources and provided guidance during the project.
Participants in the 2020 Cornell Institute for Public Affairs Domestic Capstone project for Fitch Ratings and contributors to this paper were: Giwon Kim (CIPA ‘21), Guo Gan (CIPA ‘21), Lijun Shen (CIPA ‘21), and Yunqi Yan (CIPA ‘21).
Link: Fall-2020-Capstone-Project-with-Fitch-Ratings
