Economic and Development Implications of Transportation Disinvestment (2015)

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47 APPENDIX A Case Example Description of Screening Criteria and Discussion Guide CASE SElECtIoN Case examples were drawn first from survey respondents who indicated their agency had undertaken an intentional disinvest- ment situation and were willing to provide further details in an interview. Additional potential cases were identified by means of a search of existing material on agency websites and out- reach to experts in the field. Once a potential case was identified, the research team made initial points of contact to determine whether the selected agency was willing to participate in an interview process and, if successful, conducted the appropriate interviews. The cases were selected to include a diversity of planning environments and types of disinvestment. The following general profiles served as a guide for selecting case examples: 1. Intentional disinvestment in a specific facility where antic- ipated outcomes were considered and can be compared with actual outcomes. 2. Intentional disinvestment in a corridor, network, or program where anticipated outcomes were considered and can be compared with actual outcomes. 3. Intentional disinvestment in a specific facility where deci- sion makers were unable to anticipate outcomes, but had to make the decision based on available information. 4. Intentional disinvestment in a corridor, network, or program where decision makers were unable to antici- pate outcomes, but had to make the decision based on available information. 5. Passive disinvestment (through deferred maintenance or simple lack of resources) where outcomes have appeared in other performance measures. 6. Passive disinvestment (through deferred maintenance or simple lack of resources) where planners or decision mak- ers are benchmarking deteriorating conditions, but unsure what the economic implications are. It was generally not possible to select a case to reflect each of the situations described above. Nevertheless, every effort was made to select cases that reflected the range of indicated dimen- sions of disinvestment with respect to: • Intentionality of the disinvestment scenario • Scope and complexity of the asset or system experiencing the disinvestment • Analysis available and applied to anticipate outcomes • Retrospective understanding of outcomes (or potential to understand outcomes), whether anticipated or not. DISCuSSIoN GuIDE The following guide was used to direct the interview conducted for each case example. Allowances were made for the particular details of the case at hand, while still addressing each of the pri- mary areas of interest. • Circumstances and context – How did the situation/decision come up? – When? – Who was involved? • Defining disinvestment – Describe, in your own words, why you think of this as a disinvestment • The decision process – What options were considered, and how were they identified – Were there tradeoffs considered? If so, how were they managed? – Were economic implications of the decision taken into account? How? • Scrutiny of the decision – What type of scrutiny did you get for the decisions and to whom were you accountable? • Confidence in assessment methods – What kind of information was helpful or would have been helpful in understanding the economic implica- tions of the decision? – Was there anything in particular that you wanted to understand but could not about economic implications in making the decision? What would have helped (data, methodology, etc.)? • If the decision has already been implemented . . . – Do you think you anticipated economic (or other) out- comes correctly? – Were there any unanticipated outcomes (complaints, issues, etc.)? – Or perhaps the implications are still hard to understand, even after the fact? • Learning from experience – What could others learn from your experience? – Were there any models/data sources/other resources that you found particularly helpful in your decision process that could be of use to others in similar situations?