Getting Started

Next, let’s consider who the stakeholders are. The town is clearly one of them. The users are another. Other interested parties would be the county (Saratoga County), nearby property owners, the shopping center owners and tenants, and the school district. The school district is important because its main campus is just south of intersection A. When you’ve decided who all these groups are, consider the benefits and costs that accrue to each of these groups in every aspect of the case study.

Related to the stakeholders is the choice of audience. In this case, it is the town, with the caveat that the town would then forward your report to NYSDOT. Your audience could also be the system users or the adjacent land owners, if they request a presentation about your findings.

Discussion:
Setting the scope is extremely important. Think about the highest use hours during the year. How would you decide what are the right time periods to consider? The right intersections? What criterion would you use to decide whether a given intersection or facility should be in the study or not?