Evaluation of synergies from transportation policy packages using a social welfare maximization approach: A case study for Madrid, Spain

•General dynamic framework for assessing transportation policies that respond to specific objectives in an urban context that involve private car transportation and public transportation.•A land-use and transportation interaction model and an optimization routine to determine the impact of different transport policy instruments.•Synergy evaluation.•Strategies for sustainable mobility cannot be based on an isolated action. No single measure will achieve sustainable targets for urban mobility.

This paper discusses the evaluation of synergies that derive from the implementation of policy packages designed to promote the use of public transportation and limit traffic congestion in urban areas. In this study, we propose the application of a land-use and transportation integrated (LUTI) model to study the outcomes from the implementation of two policy packages. We apply the long-term strategic LUTI model MARS-Madrid to analyze an empirical case study in Madrid, Spain. The analyzed policies include a road pricing scheme (congestion charge) in the city center and an increase in the level of service of public transportation (bus frequency changes) in the whole region. Different scenarios, involving the implementation of respectively each one of these policies separately or both policies simultaneously, are simulated and compared to a base scenario (business as usual, or “do-nothing”). We evaluate the effects of these policies on several transportation indicators and on social welfare, and discuss the optimization of these policies in isolation or combined as a policy package. The study provides insights into the suitability of the proposed LUTI modeling approach to evaluate the impact of transportation policies in urban and metropolitan areas, and the evaluation of synergies from transportation policies, a topic that is not enough studied in the literature.