A Windowed Transportation Planning Model

This research develops and applies a transportation planning model that integrates regional and local area forecasting approaches. While regional models have the scope to model the interaction of demand and congestion, they lack the spatial detail of a local approach. Local approaches typically do not consider the feedback between new project traffic and existing levels of traffic. Using a window, which retains the regional trip distribution information and the consistency between travel demand and congestion, allows the use of a complete transportation network and block level traffic zones while retaining computational feasibility. By combining the two methods, a number of important policy issues can be addressed, including the implications of traffic calming, changes in flow due to alternative traffic operation schemes, the influence of micro-scale zoning changes on nearby intersections, the impact of TDM on traffic congestion, and the consequences of a suburban light rail line.transportation planning model, traffic impact study, travel demand model, intersection control, window .

Geophysical Applications for Arctic/Subarctic Transportation Planning

This report describes a series of geophysical surveys conducted in conjunction with geotechnical investigations carried out by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the value of and potential uses for data collected via geophysical techniques with respect to ongoing investigations related to linear infrastructure. One or more techniques, including direct-current resistivity, capacitive-coupled resistivity, and ground-penetrating radar, were evaluated at sites in continuous and discontinuous permafrost zones. Results revealed that resistivity techniques adequately differentiate between frozen and unfrozen ground, and in some instances, were able to identify individual ice wedges in a frozen heterogeneous matrix. Capacitive-coupled resistivity was found to be extremely promising due to its relative mobility as compared with direct-current resistivity. Ground-penetrating radar was shown to be useful for evaluating the factors leading to subsidence in an existing road. Taken as a whole, the study results indicate that supplemental geophysical surveys may add to the quality of a geotechnical investigation by helping to optimize the placement of boreholes. Moreover, such surveys may reduce the overall investigation costs by reducing the number of boreholes required to characterize the subsurface

Evolutionary urban transportation planning? An exploration

For urban transportation planners these are challenging times. Mounting practical concerns are mirrored by more fundamental critiques. The latter come together in the observation that conventional approaches do not adequately account for the irreducible uncertainty of future developments. The central aim of this paper is to explore if and how an evolutionary approach can help overcome this limit. Two core-hypotheses are formulated. The first is that the urban transportation system behaves in an evolutionary fashion. The second hypothesis is that because of this, urban transportation planning needs also to focus on enhancing the resilience and adaptability of the system. Changes in transport and land use development patterns and policies and in the broader context in the post-war period in the Amsterdam region are analysed in order to illustrate the two core-hypotheses. In the conclusions more general implications are drawn.evolutionary economics, urban economics, transportation planning

Policy Making for Global Transportation Planning using the Delphi-Scenario Writing with a New Concept of 'Future Vision'

The personal trip survey plays a vital role in global, multi-modal transportation planning. The four-step method for estimating travel demand based on data from the personal trip survey has been systematized during the course of long-term studies and practical applications. This method therefore has been widely used in various aspects of transportation planning. However, it is usually concerned with travel demand and very useful in periods of economic expansion. Now that emphasis is being placed on quality because the economy has taken a downturn, the conventional method should be reconsidered in terms of a qualitative, political approach. The present study deals with a new methodology for establishing a qualitative, long-term view of regional requirements. In other words, the purpose of this study is to create a socio-economic vision of the future for proper transportation planning for a target region. This study calls it 'future vision', which consists of several future images when considering the changing characteristics of the region and relationship with surrounding areas. These future images can cover all transportation-related topics, from global problems to local issues. Each future image is composed of scenarios that reflect the future direction and role of transportation planning, which fully describes infrastructures as well as management. Transportation planning experts employed brainstorming to create an initial version of the future vision. The brainstorming brought many important keywords related to the future images. The planners assembled keywords and added sentences to set up scenarios. This version was revised by using the Delphi questionnaire method in order to eliminate obvious errors and improper perspectives, while incorporating missing information. The Delphi method was conducted on researchers, engineers, planners, and administrators that are well versed in transportation planning. A procedure was also developed to update almost automatically according to the results of the questionnaire. The revised version of the future vision was again checked and revised similarly by the Delphi method and the updating procedure. Actually, the future vision was refined twice, which led to the final version of the future vision having a high degree of accuracy and feasibility. The future vision is qualitative and policy-oriented, while the conventional four-step method is quantitative and demand-oriented. Two different approaches should work together for the comprehensive transportation planning. This study finally introduced a hybrid method between the two approaches by discussing a way of linking the future vision with the conventional personal trip survey system. The proposed linkage produced (1) hearing recommendations of various people in many positions, (2) enhancement of the transportation planning by sharing and solving anticipated problems, and (3) incorporation of more policy-oriented planning elements.

Agent-based transportation planning compared with scheduling heuristics

Here we consider the problem of dynamically assigning vehicles to transportation orders that have di¤erent time windows and should be handled in real time. We introduce a new agent-based system for the planning and scheduling of these transportation networks. Intelligent vehicle agents schedule their own routes. They interact with job agents, who strive for minimum transportation costs, using a Vickrey auction for each incoming order. We use simulation to compare the on-time delivery percentage and the vehicle utilization of an agent-based planning system to a traditional system based on OR heuristics (look-ahead rules, serial scheduling). Numerical experiments show that a properly designed multi-agent system may perform as good as or even better than traditional methods

Applying revenue management to agent-based transportation planning

We consider a multi-company, less-than-truckload, dynamic VRP based on the concept of multi-agent systems. We focus on the intelligence of one vehicle agent and especially on its bidding strategy. We address the problem how to price loads that are offered in real-time such that available capacity is used in the most profitable way taking into account possible future revenues. We develop methods to price loads dynamically based on revenue management concepts.\ud We consider a one leg problem, i.e., a vehicle travels from i to j and can wait at most τ time units in which it can get additional loads from i to j. We develop a DP to price loads given a certain amount of remaining capacity and an expected number of auctions in the time-to-go. Because a DP might be impractical if parameters change frequently and bids has to be determined in real-time, we derived two approximations to speed up calculations. The performance of these approximations are compared with the performance of the DP. Besides we introduce a new measure to calculate the average vehicle utilisation in consolidated shipments. This measure can be calculated based on a limited amount of data and gives an indication of the efficiency of schedules and the performance of vehicles

Benefit-Cost Analysis for Transportation Planning and Public Policy: Towards Multimodal Demand Modeling

This report examines existing methods of benefit-cost analysis (BCA) in two areas, transportation policy and transportation planning, and suggests ways of modifying these methods to account for travel within a multimodal system. Although the planning and policy contexts differ substantially, this report shows how important multimodal impacts can be incorporated into both by using basic econometric techniques and even simpler rule-of-thumb methods. Case studies in transportation planning focus on the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), but benchmark California’s competencies by exploring methods used by other states and local governments. The report concludes with a list and discussion of recommendations for improving transportation planning models and methods. These will have immediate use to decision makers at Caltrans and other state DOTs as they consider directions for developing new planning capabilities. This project also identifies areas, and lays groundwork, for future research. Finally, by fitting the planning models into the broader context of transportation policy, this report will serve as a resource for students and others who wish to better understand BCA and its use in practice