Measuring Environmental Benefits

# Measuring the value of a park

A state park currently charges no admission fee and is visited by 582 people each day. A researcher has interviewed a sample of the visitors and has concluded that they come from 6 geographic zones. She has collected the following data, where “Travel Cost” is the round-trip transportation cost of visiting the park:

 Zone Travel Cost Population Visitors 1 $5 300 30 2$10 900 72 3 $15 2000 120 4$20 5000 200 5 $25 8000 160 6$30 2000 0

It is also known that the total number of visits to the park (including people from all zones) is given by an equation of the form: P=A-B*Q, where P is the admission fee, Q is the number of visitors, and A and B are constants.

1. Please calculate the number of people who would visit the park if a \$5 admission fee were imposed.
2. Use your result from (1) to calculate the daily value of the park.

When you're done, you can check your work via the link below:
URL: https://wilcoxen.maxwell.insightworks.com/pages/2269.html
Peter J Wilcoxen, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Revised 05/10/2006