Table 10: Value Report Chart
This chart illustrates the identified costs and values, with many sub-sections sum up the main expenses and revenue that can be expected with a monorail at The Ohio State University.
Expenses
The expenses involved in bringing a monorail system to campus is the largest obstacle. Research and design account for a considerable amount of the expenses. The system is large and changes the entire flow and logistics of campus and needs to be implemented with perfection. Iteration of research and design to reach a model quality enough to bring to campus is a costly process. Along with the costs of design, the cost of building and installing the system is large too. To build a large scale monorail system requires a lot of funding along with the cost of thousands of man hours. The labor involved would be costly as it could be considered dangerous.
Included in the cost of construction are the costs of shutting down areas of campus during construction. Finally, the implementation of a monorail would require costs involved in the destruction of current infrastructure in order to build onto and around the current buildings on campus. A monorail will have operational and maintenance costs as well. Operational costs include the power used as well as human supervision that is needed for the safety and operation of the monorail. Maintaining the mechanical systems of the monorail cars as well as maintaining the rail for the car will be ongoing costs that will need to be considered as well.
Revenue
The monorail would be funded by The Ohio State University and donors that support the school. Students would help compensate for the costs by paying a small fee as part of their tuition when they enroll as they do for COTA buses. The university could also offer single day and monthly passes to non-students to generate more revenue which would be done through an application. If the monorail was extended into the area surrounding the campus, the city of Columbus could subsidize the system. A sizable amount of revenue can be made through selling advertisement space in the monorail. These advertisements would be valuable to companies since they will be seen by every passenger. The system will not generate enough revenue to cover all of its start-up costs or ongoing costs. It could be subsidized by the university, city Of Columbus, or through donations to the university. Donors could pay for a station to be built and named after them to offset the cost of construction.
Social Impact
A monorail system on Ohio State’s main campus would significantly improve student’s lives on campus and would also have a positive social impact for those students. The monorail would improve attendance and the overall commute because of its speed. The system would improve the quality of life for students with physical disabilities. Unlike buses, it would take physically disabled students the same amount of time to board the monorail as a nondisabled student, given elevators are installed for the platforms. This system would reduce the feeling of being an outsider for physically disabled students and would likely improve morale. The system would also be energy efficient and would have a small or even negligible carbon footprint. The system would also be used to promote eco-friendly alternatives.