Travel Estimation Techniques for Urban Planning (Traffic Planning Analysis) [National Cooperative Highway Research Program, NCHRP Report 365]

Systematic, well-designed research provides the most effective approach to the solution of many problems facing highway administrators and engineers. Often, highway problems are of local interest and can best be studied by highway departments individually or in cooperation with their state universities and others. However, the accelerating growth of highway transportation develops increasingly complex problems of wide interest to highway authorities. This report updates NCHRP Report 187, "Quick-Response Urban Travel Estimation Techniques and Transferable Parameters" (1978). It provides a thorough review of the four-step travel demand process and transferable parameters that can be used in simple planning analyses. It will be particularly useful to planners in smaller urban areas that cannot afford to develop area-specific parameters. A case study illustrates how the techniques and parameters can be applied in a typical study. The travel parameters and techniques presented in this report follow the basic four-step process: trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and traffic assignment.