Active transportation demand modeling and infrastructure performance assessment

Sheikh Ariful Alam

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14661327.v1

Abstract

Due to obvious benefits and growing demand of active transportation, engineers and planners are eager to expand active transportation infrastructure facilities. However, no robust methodology has been developed for active transportation infrastructures assessment addressing its potential demand. This project aims to develop an integrated methodology estimate potential demand and to assess the infrastructures needs and quality, based on quantitative methods. A case study was conducted to apply these methods at North York Centre, City of Toronto. The potential active transportation demand was measured using short trips recorded in the area-wide transportation demand database. Quality of service, and connectivity measures were estimated for evaluating the performance of active transportation infrastructure. Quality of service includes Ottawa Multimodal Level of Service Guidelines, Pedestrian and Bike Level of Service from Highway Capacity Manual. The results show that the study area is operating at poor level of service and highly potential for active modes. Therefore, a new street design has been proposed to reach the desired performance level.

Highlights

1.1 Project BackgroundActive transportation, generally recognized as walking and cycling and other active modes, plays a vital role for livable and equitable transportation solution by providing basic mobility, affordability, accessibility, first-and-last-mile connections, physical fitness and pleasure(Kuzmyak, Walters, Bradley, & Kockelman, 2014)
To ensure that future projects, funding allocations and policy decisions achieve goals related to mode shift, reduced vehicle kilometer traveled (VKT), cost effectiveness, greenhouse gas reductions and improved public health, it is vital that the scale of current latent and future demand are modeled accurately to capture the benefits of active transportation investments
This study highlights the importance of a comprehensive methodology to address active transportation potential demand and evaluation of its infrastructure

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Project BackgroundActive transportation, generally recognized as walking and cycling and other active modes, plays a vital role for livable and equitable transportation solution by providing basic mobility, affordability, accessibility, first-and-last-mile connections, physical fitness and pleasure(Kuzmyak, Walters, Bradley, & Kockelman, 2014). Many public agencies on these cities are eager to expand the pedestrian and bicycle facilities or implementing complete streets or sustainable street design that provide safe and convenient connectivity for walking and cycling(Forsyth & Krizek, 2012). Despite the widespread interest of building a sustainable or complete streets with more walking and cycling infrastructures, these remain limited and unimplemented due to lack of capacity and time to conduct detail analysis of active transportation demand (Forsyth, Agrawal, & Krizek, 2012). Many researches assisting public agencies are done focusing on providing mobility of walking and cycling through better connectivity with a safe environment. They are not proving detailed or robust methodology by considering all aspects of multimodal transportation mobility, connectivity and safety (Forsyth & Krizek, 2012). TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD, 1674(Paper No 99-0750), 94-101

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