Clearinghouse
TMIP Newsletter Archive
TMIPConnection
The Travel Model Improvement Program Newsletter
January 2002 (PDF format 
)
The Travel Model Improvement Program is sponsored by:
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
Federal Transit Administration
Table of Contents
TMIP and the Metropolitan Capacity Building Program (MCB)
Getting to know your TMIP team
Hot Topics....
Eye on Census Related Issues
Training Corner
TMIP and the Metropolitan Capacity Building Program (MCB)
In response to our State and metropolitan area partners, and in keeping with our long-standing tradition of providing technical assistance, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA), in conjunction with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials(AASHTO), the American Public Transit Association (APTA), and the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO), has launched the Metropolitan Capacity Building (MCB) Program.
The purpose of this program is to assist State and local transportation officials and professional staff in enhancing their skills and abilities to meet the increasingly complex political, social, economic, and environmental issues of metropolitan areas. In particular, the MCB program seeks to help transportation professionals further enhance their abilities to develop and implement transportation plans and programs that consider all transportation modes and are responsive to the needs of the traveling public at large whether it is commuters, transit users or freight shippers. The main audiences for the MCB Program are members of policy boards or executive committees, professional staff in a metropolitan area who participate in the metropolitan transportation planning process, and metropolitan planning organization transportation planning staff.
The four objectives of the MCB Program are to:
- Provide background and context for transportation agency board members to understand the metropolitan transportation planning process and its relationship to other societal goals related to transportation;
- Strengthen transportation planning staff consensus-building, policy analysis, and technical skills;
- Provide a means for disseminating commendable examples of metropolitan transportation planning practices across the nation; and
- Provide new metropolitan planning organizations and/or areas newly designated non-attainment for air quality with information and technical assistance.
For more information about the MCB Program objectives, components, or planning information, please visit our new website at http://www.planning.dot.gov/.
How are TMIP and the MCB Related?
Within the MCB program, TMIP will serve as the primary source of technical assistance, training, research, and conferences to improve planning analysis techniques used by planning agencies. The MCB program will provide an additional means to market and deliver TMIP products and services.
Getting to know your TMIP team
Eric Pihl
Eric joined FTA’s Office of Planning in May of 2000 from the Environmental Protection Agency. While with the EPA, Eric helped develop a conceptual framework for a modally based “next generation” emissions model that would interface with travel demand models. Prior to the EPA, Eric worked in travel forecasting as a consultant for Hagler Bailly Services and as a transportation planner for the Atlanta Regional Commission. Eric holds masters degrees in urban planning and transportation engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Since joining FTA, Eric has led the coordination and preparation of technical reviews of travel forecasting methods for transit New Starts projects. He feels that good project planning will require access to appropriate methods, and methods should be employed early in the planning process to define transportation problems and inform the selection of reasonable solutions. The selection and development of appropriate methods will, in turn, require access to necessary information, the cultivation of travel forecasting practioners, allocation of resources for model development, and ultimately a community consensus on travel forecasting “best practice”. As a member of the TMIP group, Eric looks forward to working to advance these issues.
Hot Topics (From the Listserv)
Time-of-Day Modeling
A recent topic for discussion was posed to the listserv regarding time-of-day (TOD) modeling for travel demand models. The question referred to the understanding of the advantages of building a daily model for a smaller community versus a peak period model.
The interest in time-of-day modeling has increased over the years as travel demand models have shifted from concentrating solely on size or capacity of a major new transportation investment to including an analysis of travel performance measures such as speed, congestion, and emissions. To provide this information transportation planners must now present information that goes beyond using only a twenty-four hour volume, capacity and speed. Planners need to conduct travel demand analysis by peak period or by hour to capture speed, congestion, and emissions variations by TOD. The most common periods of analysis are AM, PM and off-peak periods. If the travel demand analysis is performed by peak period, then the level-of-information will be greater, however, the level-of-effort to do this is considerably greater.
When deciding between a peak period model and a daily model it basically comes down to time, cost and analysis requirements. Some communities have minimal congestion at peak periods therefore the difference between a peak period model and daily model are minimal and may not be worth the cost or effort.
For larger areas however, peak period analysis may be required under the conformity regulation. If the area is a transportation management area (TMA) or above, and serious non-attainment for ozone or carbon monoxide (CO), peak period travel demand analysis must be done. Also, larger areas experience higher congestion levels, and therefore need to perform TOD analysis due to the higher variability of speed, volumes and transportation system performance by TOD.
For more information on TOD, the TMIP clearinghouse offers the Time-of-Day Modeling Procedures State-of-the-Art, State-of-the-Practice document available at the TMIP website.
Eye on Census Related Issues
The decennial census is an important source of comprehensive small area data for the transportation community. Two important decennial census “long form” products will be released within the next year.
Summary File 3 (SF 3), and the Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) 2000 are currently being prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau. Transportation planners need to be aware that Census 2000 may be the last census with a "long form." The American Community Survey (ACS) is being tested as a replacement.
Summary File 3
The Summary File 3 (SF 3) is part of the “standard” decennial products released by the Census Bureau. SF 3 is scheduled for release from June – September 2002. Data items on SF 3 include variables such as income, auto-ownership, travel time to work, departure time to work, and means of transportation to work. The geographic detail for most tables will be the census block group. Some tables may be available only at the census tract level.
Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) 2000
The Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP 2000) is a special tabulation sponsored through a pooled fund by AASHTO. CTPP 2000 has been specified to contain around 200 detailed tables at geographic levels as small as Transportation Analysis Zones; and is planned for release in Spring 2003. The package will be accompanied by data access software, and an electronic guidebook.
The CTPP Working Group is currently working on the design and coursework for the guidebook. The course will help planners at MPOs and State DOTs to understand and use the data. Interactive case studies and hands-on exercises are an important part of the design.
Ed Limoges of SEMCOG is working with the Census Bureau on an extension of the place of work allocation system. Ed is researching different methods to allocate ungeocoded place of work responses, including using local lists of industry and occupation, and examining public transit modes in greater detail than in previous CTPP efforts.
American Community Survey (ACS)
The Census Bureau hopes that the American Community Survey (ACS) will replace the decennial census “long form.” The ACS is designed as a continuous survey with monthly samples for every county across the country. The objective is to provide data comparable to the “long form” in a more frequent, timely, and cost effective manner. It is expected that the ACS will provide “long form” type data once every five years.
ACS is currently being tested in 31 sites across the country. The data collected in these areas are expected to allow the Census Bureau to compare the ACS data with Census 2000 “long form” data.
Another component of the ACS is a national survey, which allows for reporting of data for national, state, large cities, and counties. In 2000, this survey was called the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS). This survey is also planned to be conducted in 2001 and 2002. The C2SS tables are available at: http://www.census.gov/acs/www/.
The TRB Census Data Subcommittee hosts a portal on relevant transportation data from C2SS at: http://www.trbcensus.com/c2ss.html.
For more information on CTPP 2000, please visit: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ctpp/ or e-mail ctpp@fhwa.dot.gov.
Training Corner
Upcoming Courses and Seminars
Introduction to Travel Demand Forecasting
05-Feb-2002 through 08-Feb-2002
Atlanta, GA
Cost: $300.00
Contact: Jim Davis, GA DOT
E-mail: jim.davis@dot.state.ga.us
Date: TBA March/April 2002
Indianapolis, IN
Cost: $300
Contact: Michael Culp, FHWA
E-mail: michael.culp@fhwa.dot.gov
18-Jun-2002 through 21-Jun-2002
Richmond, CA
Cost: $300.00
Contact: TMIP Website for details
Introduction to Travel Demand Forecasting
12-Mar-2002 through 15-Mar-2002
Huntington, WV
Cost: $400.00
Contact: Barbara Roberts
E-mail: robertsb@marshall.edu
TMIP Model Validation and Reasonablness Checking Seminar
Northern California March-2002
Cost: Free
Contact: TMIP Website for details
TMIP Land Use Seminar
Washington D.C. March-2002
Cost: Free
Contact:TMIP Website for details
The latest information on courses and seminars can be found at: http://tmip.fhwa.dot.gov/.
To subscribe to this free newsletter send an e-mail to TMIP@tamu.edu or contact Gary Thomas at (ph.) (979) 458-3263, (fax) (979) 845-6001, (mail) Gilchrist, Room 112, Texas Transportation Institute, Texas A&M University System, 3135 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-3135
