01044618

Component

Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) must develop and maintain transportation planning models to support a multitude of system decisions and transportation and land use policies. The main components of transportation planning models include: travel demand estimation, calibration, and network performance assessment. Evaluating the network performance is a straight forward process which compares estimated service levels to those established by each community. However, the model must be calibrated before future traffic levels are examined. Traffic counts on key routes usually receive great attention during calibration and they may trigger conflicts among state and local agencies. Estimating travel demand involves predicting the number of trips by activity. Although the basic principles used to estimate trips are straightforward, applying them to accurately capture trip making behavior gets to be a tricky endeavor. The availability and quality of local data may be the most critical obstacle that MPOs must face when estimating travel demand. This problem becomes even more acute in small MPOs which lack the resources to undertake significant primary travel data collection. The lack of data also impacts the ability to calibrate models to reflect an area’s unique characteristics and allow reliable future forecasts. Further, in many instances, the smaller MPOs lack the staff resources and expertise necessary to develop, run, and maintain transportation planning models. Many smaller MPOs have difficulty recruiting or retaining skilled transportation modelers. This paper presents an innovative approach that uses a partnership between academia, local, state, and federal transportation agencies to meet transportation modeling demands in North Dakota. The program consolidates all model development, enhancements, and maintenance at the Advanced Traffic Analysis Center (ATAC) at North Dakota State University, to maintain all travel demand models in North Dakota. Further, ATAC is the sole entity designated with the role of running models in support of various MPO, state DOT, and consultant needs. The paper discusses the approach to establishing the program, lessons learned, and challenges.

01044603

English

12p

2006

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

CD-ROM

References (5) ; Tables (1)

Calibration; Forecasting; Innovation; Lessons learned; Mathematical models; Metropolitan planning organizations; Partnerships; Small cities; Transportation planning; Travel demand

Local data

North Dakota

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

TRIS, TRB

Mar 23 2007 12:18PM

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• 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
• Planning Analysis Toolbox for Small Urban Areas in North Carolina
• 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
• 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