01044615

Component

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) develops analysis tools for use in the evaluation of transportation plans, the calculation of project-level travel forecasts, and for use in air quality analysis. The development of these tools can be costly and time consuming. In most cases a similar approach to model development is applied across the board, irrespective of the size of the community or the transportation issues or policies that need to be evaluated in a given community. This approach can lead to an over investment of time and resources in some models and an under investment of time and resources for other models. To create a more efficient and consistent analysis process NCDOT sponsored research to develop a set of best practice guidelines for transportation planning analysis for various sized communities across North Carolina. The research focused on North Carolina communities whose populations ranged from under 5,000 up to 50,000. In addition to community size, various transportation and community issues were considered. The premise of the research is that such issues, as well as study area size and population should determine the type and complexity of the travel forecasting tools. To test this premise the research team evaluated several forecasting tools and techniques including trend line analysis, a manual allocation approach, and a North Carolina Quick Response (NC-QRM) method. This paper provides an overview of the analysis tools and techniques recommended by the researchers for communities with population less than 50,000. In addition to an introduction of the analysis tools, the paper presents two planning approaches that can supplement the forecasting tools and two decision support systems that can assist the analyst in the selection of tools most appropriate to meet the needs of their community.

01044603

English

10p

2006

10th National Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities

CD-ROM

Figures (1) ; References (2)

Best practices; Decision support systems; Guidelines; Planning; Small cities; Traffic forecasting; Transportation planning

North Carolina

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB

Mar 23 2007 10:18AM

• 1995-2004 CARTS Pedestrian/Bicyclist Crash Analysis
• A Pavement Management System for County Roads in the State of Alabama
• Application of an Internet-Based Travel Survey in a Medium-Sized Community
• Applying Value Methodology to Metropolitan Transportation Planning
• Better, Stronger Faster; How Oblique Aerial Imagery Is Changing the Face of Transportation Planning
• Bozeman Bicycle Network Plan
• Comparison and Evaluation of Simplified Transportation Project Selection and Prioritization Methodologies for Use by Small and Medium Sized Planning Agencies
• Design Considerations to Mitigate Non-Response in Regional Household Travel Surveys
• Developing a Consistent, Flexible, and Defensible Methodology for State and Regional Transportation Planning
• Development of Travel Demand Modeling Tools for Small Area Planning Purposes
• Discrete Event Simulation of Forecasted Non-Urban Freight Movement
• Evaluating the Relative Safety of Access Management Treatments in Micro-Simulation
• Getting Innovative Traffic Forecasting Model Networks "In Shape" Quickly Using GIS Datasets
• Highway Ranking Model
• Implementation of a Public Transportation System in Casper, Wyoming
• Importance of Modeling Ozone Formation Attributable to Rural Interstate Traffic
• Innovative Financing at the Local Level: Project Funding for a Regional Transportation Agency
• Integrating Access Management into Local Transportation Planning
• La Entrada al Pacifico: Viability and Potential Impacts on the Odessa-Midland, Texas Area and Other Small Communities
• Local Road Safety Audits: A New Approach to an Old Problem
• Microsimulation for Transportation Planning for Small Communities
• New Approach for Updating Highway Functional Classifications
• PlanCheyenne - Co-Planning for MPOs
• Potential Use of GPS Data for Calibrating Travel Demand Models
• Safe Routes to School in Superior, WI and Duluth, MN
• Safety Conscious Planning for Small and Medium Size Urban Areas
• Six Hints for Better Public Process
• Strategic Transportation, Environmental Planning Process for Urbanizing Places (STEP UP)
• Successful Use of Public Involvement Tools - Johns Pass Bridge Project
• Supporting Transportation Planning in Small MPOs Through Partnerships and Innovative Methods
• The Bridge Between NEPA and Corridor Studies: The Story of Northern Bridge Corridor Study
• US-280 Access Management - Managing Small Town Economics
• Using Simplified Regression Analysis in Financial Planning for an MTP, or Seeing the Forest for the Trees
• Web-Based Delivery of Geospatial and Transportation Data for a Rural Intelligent Transportation Systems Project
• When Big Projects Come to Smaller Places: The Communication Challenge
• Which Came First? The SR 386 Area Study