Browsing by Subject "Transportation planning"

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Access to Destinations: How Close is Close Enough? Estimating Accurate Distance Decay Functions for Multiple Modes and Different Purposes
(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2008-05) Iacono, Michael; Krizek, Kevin; El-Geneidy, Ahmed M.
Existing urban and suburban development patterns and the subsequent automobile dependence are leading to increased traffic congestion and air pollution. In response to the growing ills caused by urban sprawl, there has been an increased interest in creating more “livable” communities in which destinations are brought closer to ones home or workplace (that is, achieving travel needs through land use planning). While several reports suggest best practices for integrated land use-planning, little research has focused on examining detailed relationships between actual travel behavior and mean distance to various services. For example, how far will pedestrians travel to access different types of destinations? How to know if the “one quarter mile assumption” that is often bantered about is reliable? How far will bicyclists travel to cycle on a bicycle only facility? How far do people drive for their common retail needs? To examine these questions, this research makes use of available travel survey data for the Twin Cities region. A primary outcome of this research is to examine different types of destinations and accurately and robustly estimate distance decay models for auto and non-auto travel modes, and also to comment on its applicability for: (a) different types of travel, and (b) development of accessibility measures that incorporate this information.
Access to Destinations: Twin Cities Metro-wide Traffic Micro-simulation Feasibility Investigation
(Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2008-05) Hourdos, John; Michalopoulos, Panos
The economic importance of effective traffic management becomes more and more evident as traffic demands increase. Faced with the negative effects of traffic congestion including higher transport costs, greater energy consumption, and increased driver delays, transportation agencies around the world areas have responded by building new roads and enhancing their traffic management systems. However, the high costs associated with these projects, and the possibility that improvements in different parts of a complex traffic management system may give rise to unforeseen interactions, have prompted many metropolitan areas to invest in the creation of metro-wide simulation systems that support the evaluation of alternative traffic management scenarios across an entire traffic network. Such undertakings are far from simple; even small-scale microscopic simulations require large amounts of high-quality data. The objectives of this project were to evaluate the feasibility of developing a traffic simulation system for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, and to propose the most appropriate methodology for the design and implementation of such a system, taking into account local needs and capabilities.
Activation of the I-394 Laboratory for ITS Operational Testing: Phase 2
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 1998-04) Reynhout, Kenneth; Michalopoulos, Panos; Siagian, Alexander
The key element in improving traffic operations and performing real-time management is the ability to assess the effectiveness of various alternatives prior to implementation. Likewise, the crucial feature for providing this capability is a Traffic Data Management System (TDMS), which gathers data and makes it available for various traffic analysis applications. The purpose of this research is to develop TDMS as part of a Laboratory Environment for TRaffic ANalysis (LETRAN). Such a laboratory environment would provide easy and efficient access to various kinds of traffic data for use in simulation, control, incident detection, and other types of traffic analysis applications to be deployed in a next-generation traffic management center. In addition, a Machine-Vision Laboratory (MVL) will be designed and implemented as part of the Center for Transportation Studies(CTS) Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory (ITS Lab). This MVL will use live video feeds from both freeways and arterial streets and provide machine-vision technology for conducting traffic detection, data collection, and group training exercises. Such capabilities will allow for the collection of detailed, accurate, and continuous data for successful model development, calibration, testing and evaluation.
Activation of the I-394 Laboratory for ITS Operational Testing: Phase I
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 1997-12) Reynhout, Kenneth; Michalopoulos, Panos; Sullivan, Mike; Siagian, Alexander
This and other related research have two primary objectives: 1. To develop practical operational tools which can be deployed for use in traffic-management and transportation planning activities. 2. To develop a laboratory infrastructure which will facilitate future advances in traffic modeling and other ITS initiatives. The objectives of this particular research project are as follows: * A thorough examination and documentation of the 1-394 system's specifications. * Diagnosis of the working condition of the 1-394 system. * Negotiation and implementation of a repair plan * Establishing a communications connection between the ITS Lab and the Traffic Management Center (TMC). * Activation of the 1-394 Lab, which will include a user's guide that describes the steps a user should take to access video, make a connection to the TMC and the 1-394 system, and configure the system for traffic detection and data collection. A completed 1-394 Lab would be a unique and valuable tool for obtaining information that loop-detectors have been unable to supply. This information includes flow dynamics, incident behavior, capacity, and other traffic-flow characteristics. This information is vital for fine tuning operational tools and schemes to be deployed in a future TMC, and will also provide an information foundation for future research and development.
An agent-based transportation impact sketch planning (TISP) model system
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Hammadi, Ayad A.; Miller, Eric J.
A traffic impact sketch planning (TISP) model is presented for the estimation of the likely travel demand generated by a major land-use development or redevelopment project. The proposed approach overcomes the problems with the non-behavioral transportation-related studies used in practice for assessing the development design impacts on the local transportation system. The architectural design of the development, in terms of the number and type of dwellings, by number of bedrooms per unit, and the land-use categories of the non-residential floorspace, are reflected in the TISP model through an integrated population and employment synthesis approach. The population synthesis enables the feasible deployment of an agent-based microsimulation (ABM) model system of daily activity and travel demand for a quick, efficient, and detailed assessment of the transportation impacts of a proposed neighborhood or development. The approach is not restricted to a certain type of dataset of the control variables for the geographic location of the development. Datasets for different geographic dimensions of the study area, with some common control variables, are merged and cascaded into a synthesized, disaggregate population of resident persons, households and jobs. The prototype implementation of the TISP model is for Waterfront Toronto’s Bayside Development Phase 2, using the operational TASHA-based GTAModel V4.1 ABM travel demand model system. While the conventional transportation studies focus on the assessment of the local traffic impacts in the immediate surroundings of the development, the TISP model investigates and assesses many transportation related impacts in the district, city, and region, for both residents and non-residents of the development. TISP model analysis includes the overall spatiotemporal trips distribution generated by the residents and non-residents of the development for the auto and non-auto mobility systems and the simulated agents diurnal peaking travel times. The model results are compared with the trips estimates by a prior project traffic impact study and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual (TGM) rates of weekday trips for the relevant land uses. Future extensions and improvements of the model including the generalization and full automation of the model, and the bi-level macro-micro representation of the transportation network are also discussed.
Beyond Business as Usual: Ensuring the Network We Want Is the Network We Get
(2006-09-01) Levinson, David M; de Oca, Norah Montes; Xie, Feng
This research, extending the Mn/DOT-funded project If They Come, Will You Build It, assesses the implications of existing trends on future network construction. It compares forecast networks (using models estimated on historical decisions developed with previous research) under alternative budget scenarios (trend, above trend, below trend), with networks constructed according to alternative sets of decision rules developed with Mn/DOT and Metropolitan Council staff. The comparison evaluates alternative futures using a set of performance measures to determine whether the network we would get in the absence of a change in policies (allowing historical policies to go forward) outperforms or underperforms the networks developed by applying suggested decision rules. This evaluation methodology enables new decision rules for network construction (building new links or widening existing links) to be tested. The research suggests a path beyond ?business as usual?.
This research incorporates results from the different scenarios tested. It presents the processes, approaches and development to encode historical decision rules. After analyzing flowcharts developed from the interviews of staff at different levels of government, if-then rules are generated for each jurisdiction. This research then describes the details and processes necessary to run the network forecasting models with various decision rules. Results for different scenarios are presented including adding additional constraints for the transportation network expansion and calibration process details. A comparison and analysis between scenarios is made in order to provide a final conclusion on what scenario will produce the greatest benefit for the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Transportation Network.
Efficiency and equity of orbital motorways in Madrid
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2010) Martín, Juan Carlos; García-Palomares, Juan Carlos; Gutiérrez, Javier; Román, Concepción
Orbital motorways are major structuring elements in the metropolitan areas of developed countries. They can be considered as key components within the transport network of large urban agglomerations, funneling a great amount of intra- and inter metropolitan traffic. This paper explores the equity and efficiency effects of orbital motorways on accessibility, using the beltways of Madrid as a case study. It is well known that orbital impacts differ depending on their location within the metropolitan area (inner and outer) as well as the activity distributional performance (agglomeration vs. decentralization of activities). These topics have received very little attention in previous studies. The paper extracts some policy considerations with respect to accessibility disparities within metropolitan areas and com- pares relative changes from the spatial perspective.
Equip the warrior instead of manning the equipment
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2010) Brömmelstroet, Marco
This paper assesses the embedding of land use and transport instruments—Planning Support Systems (PSS), models and tools—in Dutch planning practice, in order to shed light on how planning practitioners perceive these instruments and to ascertain the reasons and manner of their (lack of ) utilization. These insights provide much-needed input to improve support instruments for integrated land use and transport planning, particularly during early planning phases and on the regional level. The re- search adds to the emerging literature on PSS. It builds on general insights into bottlenecks that block the use of PSS in practice, and employs a user-oriented approach to gain more insight into how users perceive these bottlenecks and how they relate to specific land use and transport PSS. Much of the existing research geared toward improving these instruments has a technical focus on adjusting the intrinsic workings of the instruments themselves. However, the way in which they are embedded in planning practice has remained largely ignored and poorly understood. Based on data from a web-based survey administered to land use and transport practitioners in the spring of 2007, this paper describes how LUT instruments are embedded in planning practice and how they are perceived by the planning actors in land use and transport planning. The findings suggest that a technical focus is insufficient to improve the implementation of these instruments. The key bottlenecks, identified by the survey, actually are centered on “softer issues,” such as lack of transparency and poor connections to the planning process. The closing analysis and discussion offer some potential remedies for these shortcomings.
Evaluating Twin Cities Transitways’ Performance and their Interaction with Traffic on Neighboring Major Roads
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2015-03) Hourdos, John; Lehrke, Derek
Long-term, regional travel demand models are essential tools used by planning organizations for resource management, project scheduling, and impact studies. Developed primarily at the macroscopic level, these tools lack sufficient detail to capture the influence of local geometry, dynamic traffic controls, or advanced transportation demand management (ATDM) strategies. To bridge the gap, a hybrid mesoscopic-microscopic model was developed. The core of the model, surrounding two light rail corridors in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, was developed at high resolution for microscopic simulation to capture the interaction between traffic signals, transit systems, and the road network. The remainder of the greater Twin Cities area was implemented based on the Regional Planning Model (RPM) maintained by the Metropolitan Council. Interfacing the Aimsun-based hybrid model with the Cube-based RPM, the Twin Cities Metro Hybrid Simulation was used to iteratively improve mode choice and traffic assignment to achieve a dynamic user equilibrium state. Important lessons were learned regarding the effort required to develop and maintain such a model with implications for future large scale regional modelling.
Exploring Strategies for Promoting Modal Shifts to Transitways
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2015-12) Cao, Jason; Fan, Yingling; Guthrie, Andrew; Zhang, Yi
Transitways represent large public investments whose positive impacts must be maximized whenever possible to justify the expenditures they entail. Prominent among those looked-for positive impacts is the encouragement of automobile-to-transit mode shifts by attracting increased transitway ridership. This study explores the impacts of travel time, travel cost, and population density on mode choice, using the 2010 Travel Behavior Inventory. We found a monetary value of in-vehicle travel time of $17.5/hour and a transfer penalty of $10, equivalent to 35 minutes in-vehicle travel time. Density, especially at destinations, has important effects, but travel time is the key to promote the shift to transit. The research also employs a Direct Ridership Model (DRM) to predict boardings at the station level as a function of transit-supportive policies. We find that station-area focused policies promoting affordable housing and sidewalks on all streets in station areas or entire cities have a significant and positive impact on ridership if there are sufficient potential destinations in the immediate station area, measured as the number of Google places within 100 meters. Based on our results, we stress the importance of station area affordable housing as a transit system efficiency measure, as well as for the social equity reasons it is usually encouraged. We recommend strengthening proaffordable housing policies and pro-sidewalk policies in Twin Cities station areas, supporting and encouraging for the neighborhood-scale commercial development that is required for their efficacy, and the continued implementation of pro-affordable housing policies and pro-sidewalk policies as the regional transitway system expands.
From integrated aims to fragmented outcomes: urban intensification and transportation planning in the Netherlands
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Duffhues, Jan; Bertolini, Luca
Intensification of cities has been a planning aim in many countries over the last decades. A major reason for this is the expectation that urban intensification leads to better accessibility by sustainable transportation modes and therefore contributes to increasing their share. A positive feedback loop exists between the planning of high-capacity transportation networks and intensification of land uses around these transportation networks. Urban intensification policies acknowledge this. However, the integration of transport planning and land-use planning, which one would and should expect as a consequence of this acknowledgement, does not necessarily follow. In the Netherlands, an “implementation gap” in the transport and land-use planning process aimed at urban intensification can be identified, which prevents the positive feedback loop from happening. While similar issues have been identified elsewhere, there is still a lack of knowledge of where in the planning process the implementation gap emerges. This knowledge is essential if the gap is to be closed. To understand this, analysis of various planning documents, interviews, and participant observation are used. The results show that the most critical phases in the planning process are those in which aims need to be translated into actions and actions into performance indicators.
The Impacts of Transportation Investment on Economic Growth in the Twin Cities
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2016-06) Cao, Jason; Iacono, Michael; Levinson, David; Cui, Mengying
The transportation system plays a critical role in fostering economic growth. Although previous studies have shed light on the impacts of transportation investments, their results are not readily adapted to predicting economic impacts of individual transportation projects. This study aimed to (1) investigate the impacts of transportation investments on economic growth (wages and employment) in the Twin Cities and (2) develop a method that practitioners can apply to predict economic growth resulting from investments in individual projects (as well as disinvestments). The capacity of such predictions is critical for the economy of the Twin Cities because transportation infrastructure lasts for decades once built. The method is expected to be used by practitioners of planning, programming, and finance at MnDOT and DEED, as well as at the Metropolitan Council. This study contributes to the base of knowledge by offering new empirical evidence on intra-urban patterns of agglomeration based on small-scale geographic data on job density from the Twin Cities. Our findings indicate that in general urbanization effects tend to dominate localization effects across a range of industries.
An integrated land-use/transportation forecasting and planning model: A metropolitan planning support system
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Anjomani, Ardeshir
Over the last several decades, land-use/transport interaction models have evolved. Although these models have the potential to become primary demographic forecasting and planning vehicles in metropolitan transportation planning for most large US urban regions, some gaps and improvements must be addressed. This paper briefly discusses a newly developed and refined integrated land-use/transportation model. It also introduces innovative approaches to modeling an urban area including a variant of a geographic information system-based land-use and environmental suitability analysis, as main components in deriving development potential for a small-cell grid of the study region. This approach enables the inclusion of public and stakeholder input into the modeling process, facilitates micro-level consideration of trip generation, trip distribution, and mode-choice inside the land-use demographic model, thus furthering the integration of transportation and land use in the modeling process. Such considerations and utilization of rule-based approaches and concerns of economic development and environmental and sustainability factors help close some existing gaps of operational models designed for real world practical applications. All of these features contribute toward further improvement of these models.
Introduction to special issue: Innovations for transport planning in China
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2020) Li, Zhibin; Jiao, Junfeng; Ding, Chuan
We planned this special issue in response to the new opportunities and innovations for urban transport planning in China all of which can help build the smart transportation systems of the future. In preparation for the special issue, we organized the 19th COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP2019) with the theme of “Transportation in China 2025” in July 2017 and recommended high-quality submissions to this special issue. In the end, we received a total of 24 valid papers. After the standard peer-review process, we accepted eight papers for the special issue, with three focusing on built environment and travel activity, three focusing on road network distribution, and two focusing on data-driven traffic modeling. The special issue also has a well-balanced research focus on different types of transport modes, with two papers on multi-modal transport, three on personal cars, two on public bikes, and one on pedestrians.
Itasca County Area Transportation Study
(University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, 2009-12) Douma, Frank; Fan, Yingling; Robinson, Ferrol; Baas, Gina; Cureton, Colin; Schmit, Matt
A team of researchers from University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and Center for Transportation Studies conducted a study evaluating the cost and ease of implementing a variety of options for people to travel within and outside Itasca County, Minnesota. The county presents a challenge to transportation planners, as it is the 3rd largest in the state by land area, but one of the smallest in terms of population. To gain an understanding of the key transportation needs, we held a series of focus groups, listening sessions, and one-on-one interviews, and also conducted background research that included demographic analysis, mapping of the “mis-match” between the location of jobs and where the workers lived, and a national scan of best practices in providing rural transportation. This work resulted in a number of recommendations ranging from improving bike routes and awareness of public transportation, to improving bus service linking Itasca County to Duluth and launching an online carpool service. The recommendations fall into five functional categories: • Policy and Administrative changes • Communications, Education and Outreach changes • Opportunities for Coordination and Cooperation • Operations, Maintenance and/or Service Improvements • Cost Sharing or Saving Opportunities
Matching home and work: job search, contacts, and travel.
(2010-02) Tilahun, Nebiyou Yonas
Transportation is closely tied to choices: those that have to do with location - where to live, work and play; temporal choices - when to engage in certain activities; the choice of mode - how to get to those activities and so on. The choice of home and work locations is especially important since these are relatively long term fixtures and can significantly influence everyday travel decisions. Often a person's day starts at home and ends at home. For many workers, other daily activities are constrained by the time they spend at their employment locations. Decisions related to home-work travel can also influence other choices such as short term activity locations. Understanding the link between home and work is therefore an important part of policy making to manage or accommodate travel demand. Traditionally, the approach taken by transportation professionals to match home and work locations has been to use trip distribution models, the most commonly used of which has been the gravity model. These models, which use aggregate zonal variables to match home and work, are still widely used by many planning organizations. This framework, while very useful in predicting aggregate trip distribution, overlooks much of what happens as the connection between people's home and work are established. This dissertation poses the link between home and work as an outcome of a search process for employment, where both searchers (workers) and employers try to match one another through advertising, search, screening, offers and decision making. It proposes a framework for matching home and work at a disaggregate level that follows the job search process. Empirical sections pay close attention to search methods as these can inform the geographic scope of opportunities searchers know of. Distinctions between different search methods and the related commute outcomes are illustrated using data collected for this study. The role of contacts in general, and neighborhood level contacts in particular, in matching home and work is also investigated using different data sources. An agent based model of job-worker matching based on the proposed framework is also developed and tested using data from Minnesota. While the overall emphasis is on a disaggregate approach and moves away from geographic (zonal) aggregation of decision makers, the study of contacts and their role serves to illustrate that travel and destination decisions are not independent of those around us. Focusing on the individual decision maker and following the process of job-worker matching can allow for models that are much more sensitive to changes in policy variables as they can accommodate the variability of tastes and responses among decision makers. On the other hand, the consideration of contacts, including those that may be neighbors, leaves the door open for consideration of behavior that may arise from interactions with others.
Maximizing the Benefits of Transitway Investment
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2012-09) Fan, Yingling; Tilahun, Nebiyou Y.
In the Twin Cities metropolitan area, significant long-range transit planning activities have been ongoing since the late 1990s. By 2030, the region is expected to have a network of fourteen transitways converging on the Minneapolis and St. Paul downtown areas. This project seeks to fully capitalize on the opportunities offered by transitways, by testing forward-looking policy options that enable the effective integration of transit, land use planning, and economic development. The overarching goal of this research project was twofold: 1) to sensitize and prepare policymakers for risks and rewards of various future land use and transit scenarios; and 2) to develop best practices in regional land use and transit planning for promoting economic growth and social equity.
Measuring What Matters: Access to Destinations
(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2010-08) Center for Transportation Studies
In what is likely to be an enduring period of constrained public resources, lawmakers and government executives will seek the best information possible for making policy choices and deciding where to make public investments. In a landmark series of studies known as Access to Destinations, the Center for Transportation Studies (CTS) at the University of Minnesota has opened up new frontiers of information for better policy and investment decisions.
A multiple-path gradient projection method for solving the logit-based stochastic user equilibrium model
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2020) Tan, Heqing; Du, Muqing; Yu, Chun-bin
This paper proposes a path-based algorithm for solving the well-known logit-based stochastic user equilibrium (SUE) problem in transportation planning and management. Based on the gradient projection (GP) method, the new algorithm incorporates a novel multiple-path gradient approach to generate the descent direction in consideration of many paths existing in every single origin-destination (O-D) pair. To apply the path-based algorithm, the SUE problem is reformulated as a variational inequality (VI), and a working path set is predetermined. The numerical experiments are conducted on the Winnipeg network where a large number of paths are provided. The results show the multiple-path gradient projection algorithm outperforms the original GP method. Three different step size strategies, including the fixed step size, self-regulated averaging and self-adaptive Armijo’s strategies, are involved to draw a more general conclusion. Also, the effects of the path number on computational performance are analyzed. The multiple-path gradient projection (MGP) method converges much faster than the GP method when the path set size gets large.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and land use: Lessons from West Coast states
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2018) Lewis, Rebecca; Zako, Robert; Biddle, Alexis; Isbell, Rory
Planners and policymakers in the United States increasingly recognize climate change as a critical challenge. Because the transportation sector accounts for one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) linked to climate change, some states—including California, Oregon, and Washington—have passed legislation to reduce GHGs from transportation. Much of the work to date has focused on modeling impacts and evaluating performance of different strategies. Instead, this paper focuses on policy adoption and implementation. This re-search relies on document analysis and stakeholder interviews to ex-amine state efforts to reduce GHGs by examining goals, plans, actions, and results. While these states have all established statutory goals to reduce GHGs, planning, implementation, and monitoring vary across states. California and Oregon rely on state- and metropolitan-level planning, while Washington relies on a state approach. California has enacted funding programs to implement strategies to achieve reductions and worked to reduce regulatory barriers to compact development. All states monitor levels of GHGs, but the impact of plans is often unexamined. Though West Coast states have taken initial steps to enact goals and require scenario plans, states must provide funding or regulatory relief while improving monitoring in order to achieve ambitious goals to reduce GHGs from transportation.

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