Second Generation Activity-Based Travel Modeling System for Metropolitan Areas in Texas Accommodating Demographic, Land Use, and Traffic Microsimulations
(PI: Chandra Bhat)
There has been an increasing realization of the need to replace the conventional “trip-based” approach with the “activity based” approach for travel demand modeling. However, the use of the activity-based approach presents, in particular, a number of challenges, including demographic forecasting of population characteristics in the future, the interaction of long-term land-use and residential choices with short-term travel choices, and recognizing the interactions among travel decision makers.
The overall objective of this modification proposal is to develop an integrated demographic, land-use, and activity-based travel modeling system and software product for use in travel demand forecasting and policy evaluation. The software product, labeled CEMDAP-II (for Comprehensive Econometric Micro-simulator of Daily Activity-Travel Patterns), will only need the base year demographics and land-use. The appropriate demographics and land-use for any future year will be internally forecasted, and the internal integration with a dynamic traffic assignment module will result in link volumes and link levels of service as the output from the system for any forecast year. CEMDAP-II will represent a methodologically sound, yet application friendly, modeling platform for activity-based travel analysis. It will aid TxDOT and Texas Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in their transportation-air quality modeling efforts and in transitioning from trip-based to activity based travel modeling methods.
Areas of Study: