I was wondering if there are any opensource libraries that are geared towards transportation ben/cost analysis.
I currently use microBENCOST and would like to build my own solution. I'm most comfortable with C/c++ and Python.
cheers
My girlfriend works for a transportation planning firm, and they use a variety of models developed in SPSS, with a lot of data munging in Excel and visualization in ArcGIS. As far as turnkey solutions go, though, I think you're going to be more or less on your own.
Assuming you want to move on to something a bit newer/more maintainable than a DOS application like MicroBENCOST, though, I would second the recommendation to become comfortable with Scipy, and then start building up a toolbox of statistical models based on the original application. For other types of modeling, you may also find SimPy useful; it doesn't do the simplified cost/benefit analysis that MicroBENCOST does, but it may be applicable for more open-ended design problems where original discrete simulation models are called for.