Travel Model Improvement Program - TMIP

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) has recently released Synthesis 406: Advanced Practices in Travel Forecasting. This document explores the use of travel modeling and forecasting tools that could represent a significant advance over the current state of practice. The report examines five types of models: activity-based demand, dynamic network, land use, freight, and statewide. For more information and to download a PDF version of the report, visit the TRB Web site.

The Federal Transit Administration has published the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in the June 3, 2010 Federal Register regarding Major Capital Investment Projects:

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The ANPRM seeks public comment regarding FTA’s New Starts and Small Starts project justification criteria. In particular, FTA seeks public input on how to improve its calculation of “cost effectiveness,” including whether FTA should measure quantifiable benefits other than reduced travel time. In addition, FTA seeks comment on how it should evaluate environmental benefits and economic development effects. Information gathered from the ANPRM will inform FTA’s broader effort, next year, to amend the regulations that governs its New Starts and Small Starts programs. Comments must be received by August 2, 2010 by any of the four methods noted on page 31384 of the FR notice.

TRB's Committee on Travel Survey Methods (ABJ40) has developed the transportation community's first-ever, wiki-style On-line Travel Survey Manual with details on virtually everything transportation survey developers and survey managers need to know. The web site's 25 extensive chapters cover all types of transportation surveys, including household, visitor, parking, freight and establishment surveys; stated preference and qualitative surveys; GPS-based designs and data expansion; survey costs and quality control. The newly developed appendix provides high-quality samples of RFPs, diary forms, and other field materials.

This document represents an overhaul and update of the 1996 USDOT and EPA manual prepared by Cambridge Systematics, with major contributions from TRB's recent NCHRP Report 571 "Standardized Procedures for Personal Travel Surveys."

A peer review is an excellent way for an agency to get feedback on its current travel model and to receive recommendations on how to proceed with model improvements. However, as anyone who has hosted a peer review knows, it is not a minor undertaking. The decisions and tasks involved in a peer review require careful consideration and a commitment to spending the resources necessary to conduct the best possible peer review. To help agencies make decisions when considering, planning, conducting, or following up on a peer review, the FHWA Travel Model Improvement Program engaged the U.S. DOT Volpe Center to develop the Peer Review Process Guide: How to Get the Most out of Your Peer Review. This guide, developed in consultation with several travel modeling experts, contains practical "how to" information for agencies considering or planning a peer review.