Modeling Support and Examination of Census Transportation Planning Package

摘要

A Metropolitan Planning Organization is responsible for traffic modeling and traffic forecasting within its region. It uses these traffic forecasts to develop its Transportation Improvement Plan, a five-year plan of needed roadway repairs, improvements, or construction projects. This research focused on three general themes for improving transportation planning and management of a community's transportation system for Metropolitan Planning Organizations within Alabama. The first theme involved developing and teaching workshops on traffic modeling and TRANPLAN, a software package that is difficult to learn and operate for planning purposes. The second general theme examined of the difference between regional and local traffic modeling and developed a regional-to-local modeling system to allow a similar model to be used for different levels of analysis. The regional-to-local modeling system developed by this project used TRANPLAN (regional forecasting tool) and CORSIM (local network micro-simulation package). The final theme was a review of the Census Transportation Planning Package to summarize and disseminate transportation data for the state and its urban areas.