Metropolitan Transportation Planning Research Articles

Emerging trends in household travel survey programs

Transportation planners use household travel surveys to understand travel behavior, whether to develop forecasts of travel activity using travel demand or simulation models, to analyze personal motivations that drive the decision to travel, to identify users of existing transportation infrastructure and services, or to determine responsiveness to available or future travel options. Large urban area transportation planning organizations are faced with making decisions on their next household travel surveying effort to meet growing data needs. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Planning Council (NYMTC) has focused attention on surveying options, including conducting a pilot study to evaluate the ability to collect household travel data using a smartphone app. This research reviews current travel surveying strategies aimed at improving timeliness and accuracy, while reducing participant burden (e.g., using smartphone technologies). It also includes a vision for a long-term data program, facilitated by the establishment of a regional Community of Practice (CoP) to support multi-agency data collection efforts.

Bandung Metropolitan Transportation Planning Collaboration and Perceived Transaction Cost Changes after 2 Decades of Decentralization

Bandung Metropolitan Transportation Planning Collaboration and Perceived Transaction Cost Changes after 2 Decades of Decentralization

Assessing the Potential Conflict Occurrence Due to Metropolitan Transportation Planning: A Proposed Quantitative Approach

Large urban settlements are being organized in metropolitan areas, with a polarizing city influencing and shaping the landscape of the hinterland. Transport infrastructure networks are the main vectors for the permanent flux of resources, and these exchanges should be maintained undisturbed. A poor transportation network impedes the continuity of these flows, causing unsatisfaction, ultimately generating planning-based conflicts within metropolitan zones. This study aims in assessing the potential occurrence of metropolitan conflicts generated by the transportation network design. We used a quantitative approach based on a set of new proposed indexes. The methods were applied on nine metropolitan zones from Romania. The results show that each metropolitan zone has specific potential for conflict occurrence. The higher potential was recorded within the more recent established metropolitan zones. Our results raise the question on whether the Romanian metropolitan zones are fully functional and worthy of this status. The study provides a useful and usable tool in assessing the effectiveness of the transportation networks within metropolitan areas, establishing the potential conflict occurrence and it provides interesting insights about the metropolitan transportation issues, raising red flags toward local and regional decision makers and planners.

Organisation and performance of public transport: A systematic cross-case comparison of metropolitan areas in Europe, Australia, and Canada

The paper investigates how the interplay between six organisational elements of public transport systems (conditions) – i.e. integration of planning responsibilities within an authority at the regional/metropolitan level; land-use and transport integration; long-term metropolitan public transport planning; agency over funding; fare integration, and allocation of risks between government and operators - influence two key performance indicators (outcomes) – modal split and cost-recovery. The study focuses on selected metropolitan areas in Europe, Australia, and Canada, and employs Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). QCA can handle multiple explanatory conditions in combination, framing the relationship between conditions and studied outcomes in terms of necessity and sufficiency. The paper reveals three alternative combinations of organisational elements that are sufficient for achieving each outcome, underscoring that modal split and cost-recovery depend on the combined effects of multiple conditions (conjunctural causality), and that different paths can lead to similar results (equifinality). Furthermore, even though both outcomes are linked to higher usage of public transport, findings suggest that each of them might require decision-makers to give attention to different elements. Higher modal split is closely linked to both integration between land-use and transport, and the integration of planning responsibilities within an authority at the regional/metropolitan level. Higher cost-recovery, in turn, requires focus on the way agency over funding and risk allocation strategies shape incentives for savings and/or revenue generation.

A traffic pattern detection algorithm based on multimodal sensing

Nowadays, smartphones are widely and frequently used in people’s daily lives for their powerful functions, which generate an enormous amount of data accordingly. The large volume and various types of data make it possible to accurately identify people’s travel behaviors, that is, transportation mode detection. Using the transportation mode detection, results can increase commuting efficiency and optimize metropolitan transportation planning. Although much work has been done on transportation mode detection problem, the accuracy is not sufficient. In this article, an accurate traffic pattern detection algorithm based on multimodal sensing is proposed. This algorithm first extracts various sensory features and semantic features from four types of sensor (i.e. accelerator, gyroscope, magnetometer, and barometer). These sensors are commonly embedded in commodity smartphones. All the extracted features are then fed into a convolutional neural network to infer traffic patterns. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed scheme can identify four transportation patterns with 94.18% accuracy.

Metropolitan Transportation Planning: Lessons From the Past, Institutions for the Future

Problem, research strategy, and findings: There are more than 400 U.S. metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) overseeing multiple transportation projects totaling billions of dollars, yet these crucial organizations and their history and current role are generally unknown or confusing to many planning practitioners and scholars. MPOs face major challenges in developing meaningful long-range regional transportation plans, challenges rooted in their history that planners should understand as they grapple with metropolitan planning efforts. MPOs may approve projects and their funding, but disparate agencies and often competitive local governments control budgets and actually build projects. MPOs, moreover, do not fully represent all regional interests and have no control over the local land use decisions that would support less autocentric communities and human-powered modes. I provide a metareview of the history of regional transportation planning and the MPOs responsible for it, describing U.S. metropolitan transportation planning from the early 20th century. Federal legislation in the 1960s first suggested a regional forum for conversations about metropolitan transportation. Federal legislation in subsequent decades made incremental if incomplete progress toward creating a meaningful regional forum, adapting institutions and practices to increase stakeholder involvement as well as the scope of transport planning, yet MPOs have multiple limitations that planners can address.Takeaway for practice: History suggests that MPOs can be a force for regional change. Planners and policymakers could anchor future reforms to MPOs’ existing legal and administrative frameworks. Planners should revisit the membership and voting structures of MPO boards to ensure better stakeholder representation and permit some MPOs to generate and direct transportation funds at the local level.

Managing the transition to a more compact city in Australia

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the transition towards the compact city model in Australia, which has become the orthodoxy of metropolitan planning in the last two decades. This transition is aligned with neoliberal policies through which private investment and the marketplace have become dominant in driving urban growth and change. However, an intensive review of the experience of Sydney and Perth shows that a metanarrative of transition from a social-democratic to a neoliberal form in metropolitan planning is an oversimplification, and blurs the redeployment of state powers, processes and institutions to address new challenges. The paper explores two related points. First, it demonstrates how a methodical examination of the eclectic mixture of policies designed to drive the compact city transition can enable the identification and analysis of shared policy trends across the two cities. These trends relate to metropolitan strategies, transport planning, infrastructure funding, centralization and local input. Second, it demonstrates how such a review can also provide broader insights into the contours of the political economy of the compact city, and the potential significance for its citizenry. Key insights relate to who has a say in development control, growing executive power, increased government engagement with lobby groups and growing inequality.

Considering health in US metropolitan long-range transportation plans: A review of guidance statements and performance measures

Transportation influences health primarily and most directly through traffic safety, air quality, physical activity, and accessibility. Despite the importance of all four components, only safety and air quality are typically considered during institutionalized transportation planning processes. This paper assesses how health impacts are considered in transportation planning by focusing on the long-range transportation plans that US metropolitan planning organizations develop. We analyzed the content of current plans from 25 large regions, reviewing how policy guidance statements and supporting performance measures addressed health. Goals and objectives exhibited an incomplete perspective of transportation's effects on health, focusing on safety, accessibility, and air quality, neglecting physical activity. Regional policies reflected national goals and planning requirements, which are rarely framed from a health perspective. Performance measures generally followed policy guidance, although measures of health and physical activity were lacking. Increased attention to the development of health-related performance measures and the data and analysis tools to support them is needed. By assessing the state of the practice and discussing potential approaches, this review informs a stronger and more comprehensive consideration of health within the institutionalized structure of US metropolitan transportation planning.

⁎P28 Transportation and Quality of Life: Where Do They Intersect?

BackgroundPolicymakers and researchers are increasingly recognizing the connection between public health and transportation, but health improvements are typically framed from a physical activity or active travel perspective rather than considering broader quality of life impacts. Currently, there is an inadequate understanding of the ways in which transportation and quality of life intersect, and little is known about what metropolitan planning organizations in the United States are doing to address quality of life outcomes. This study aims to develop a framework for transportation-related quality of life which we then used to examine the extent to which quality of life is being considered in metropolitan long-range transportation planning. MethodsBased on a review of the literature, a conceptual framework was developed which can aid planners and policymakers in incorporating quality of life into the transportation planning process. Long-range transportation plans were then collected for 148 of the largest metropolitan planning organizations in the United States for an aggregate content analysis. The proposed framework provided the basis for the selection of multiple quality-of-life-related search terms. 11 plans were examined in further detail to assess the context in which quality of life outcomes were referenced. Results: (Analysis Ongoing)The framework identified four domains of transportation-related quality of life: physical, mental, social, and functional well-being. Physical well-being was well-represented in the plans, typically in the context of safety, air quality/emissions, active transport, or environmental justice, but references to the other domains were scarcer. Terms explicitly referenced within federal transportation legislation planning factors such as “safety,” “accessibility,” or “mobility” appeared most frequently. Larger metropolitan planning organizations tended to reference “quality of life,” “mobility,” and “economic“ more frequently, but were less likely to mention “safety“ or “social.“ ConclusionsThe proposed framework indicates that quality of life is not being holistically considered in long-range transportation planning. Plans primarily targeted quality of life enhancements from a physical health perspective, but other dimensions such as mental or social well-being were rarely addressed. While several of the plans explicitly mentioned the improvement of quality of life as a key objective within their vision statements, others appeared to only address quality of life in so far as it satisfied federal requirements. Furthermore, references to improving quality of life were often vague, perhaps owing to its inconsistent interpretation. More than simply mirroring the language put forth by federal legislation, metropolitan planning organizations should actively work to achieve positive quality of life outcomes.

Travel and Emissions Analysis of Sustainable Transportation Policies with Activity-Based Modeling

Although activity-based models (ABMs) are starting to be used for metropolitan area transportation planning and policy making, experience is lacking in the use of the wealth of information and measures that such models offer. This paper reports on the implementation of an advanced ABM developed for the Tel Aviv, Israel, metropolitan area to analyze the various transport, activity, and emissions impacts of auto restraint, transit, and land use policies. The policy implications of various scenarios are presented. The results showed that a combination of aggressive pull-and-push measures to encourage more transit and less car use had only marginal impacts on total vehicle kilometers traveled, emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions. Other findings showed no synergic effects and suggested that some policies might have had unintended outcomes. All of the policies tested led to less congestion but increased accessibility at the same time; the increased accessibility attracted more trips to the city. Overall, this study showed that ABMs could provide important advantages in the analysis of various transport policies to improve sustainable transportation development and to enable detailed analyses of the synergic effects of various policies and their impact on many indicators. The paper advances the state of the practice of the use of ABMs for policy analysis, but much more experience and insight are needed on the best way to use the rich information and abundant measures obtained from such models.

Origins of Metropolitan Transportation Planning and the Urban Stakes of Interstate Highway Funding, 1956–1962

Speaking before Congress in April 1962, President John F. Kennedy called for an overhaul of federal transportation programming. Heeding his call, Congress passed the 1962 Federal-Aid Highway Act later that year, the first legislation to make federal highway aid contingent on metropolitan transportation planning. This article traces the roots of the 1962 planning mandate through the development of research and techniques in the emerging field of transportation planning to craft a history of methods in travel demand forecasting or what the 1962 act referred to as the three C's of metropolitan transportation planning: a mandate for continuing, comprehensive, and coordinated planning efforts. Tracing this history sheds new light on the urban stakes of Interstate highway legislation in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the role of cities in advocating for Interstate highway funding. The National Committee on Urban Transportation was an important catalyst of both methods in transportation planning and highway legislation.

Volume-to-Capacity Estimation of Signalized Road Networks for Metropolitan Transportation Planning

Transportation planning plays a critical role in shaping economic health and quality of life. Transportation planning not only provides insight into the mobility of people and goods but also influences patterns of growth and economic activity. Metropolitan transportation planning is a challenging topic because of the lack of future traffic information, such as evaluations of capacity sufficiency on large metropolitan road networks with signalized intersections. The Highway Capacity Manual provides methods for the analysis of signalized intersections and urban streets for planning; however, these methods need detailed traffic volume inputs and lane configurations at signalized intersections, which are not normally available in metropolitan transportation planning. The conventional four-step planning process is widely used to forecast directional traffic volumes on road segments, but the projected volumes are not enough for the analysis of the capacity sufficiency of future road networks through existing methods. This paper discusses a proposed method developed through the integration of available transportation planning data and the characteristics of signalized intersections. The paper links traffic assignment results from conventional transportation planning procedures to the estimation of capacity sufficiency. With the proposed method, transportation planners can estimate the capacity sufficiency of future metropolitan road networks through the use of data that are readily available in transportation planning. This method will dramatically decrease the effort required for the capacity evaluation of large signalized metropolitan road networks.

Linking Transportation and Land use Goals through Scenario Planning

The federal transportation legislation Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) provides metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) with a framework for developing and evaluating scenarios for consideration in metropolitan transportation planning. Scenario planning will be an important tool as the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), the MPO for the metropolitan Washington, D.C., region, works to develop a Regional Transportation Priorities Plan. TPB has a long history of scenario planning work. This paper discusses TPB's Financially Constrained Long-Range Transportation Plan (CLRP) Aspirations Scenario Study, completed in October 2011, which combines for the first time significant changes in land use with an extensive network of variably priced lanes (VPLs) and high-quality bus rapid transit (BRT) service into an integrated scenario. Two variations of this scenario were developed as sensitivity tests to (a) analyze the effect of land use changes without the VPL and BRT components and (b) analyze a variation of the scenario that included a lower-cost, streamlined VPL network that would require less new construction and more conversion of general-purpose lanes to VPLs. This paper describes the development and results of the analysis of the three scenarios in relation to baseline forecasts for land use and transportation. In addition, this paper compares the CLRP Aspirations Scenario Study with the recommendations outlined in the MAP-21 legislation for scenario development and analysis to evaluate how well the current TPB scenario planning process aligns with the new legislation and how the process can be improved in the future.

Integrating the Military into the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Process

According to the TRB Military Transportation Committee, most U.S. metropolitan planning areas with military installations currently have a disconnect between Department of Defense military bases, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), departments of transportation, and local communities. The Hampton Roads (Virginia) Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO), however, has a long-standing relationship with the military community and has taken steps to increase related efforts in recent years. HRTPO has advanced the cause of planning in Hampton Roads—and, by example, in the United States—through a coordinated approach to meeting the transportation needs of the military located in the Hampton Roads region. In response to military concerns about local traffic congestion and delays, the HRTPO board placed greater emphasis on military transportation planning in the region by endorsing annual military briefings by military representatives to the MPO board and by including a military needs study in its work program. The Hampton Roads Military Transportation Needs Study, an ongoing effort by HRTPO, is reportedly the first and only attempt of an MPO to identify solutions to the transportation needs of the local military. The purpose of this paper is to inform other metropolitan areas about the integration of the military into the transportation planning process in Hampton Roads and to provide a summary of key findings from the region's Military Transportation Needs Study. Other MPOs can apply the methods, results, successes, and lessons learned from Hampton Roads to their respective regions.

Choice of Metropolitan Transport Planning Process and Transport Authority Organization (Case of Bandung Metropolitan Area, Indonesia)

Choice of Metropolitan Transport Planning Process and Transport Authority Organization (Case of Bandung Metropolitan Area, Indonesia)

New approaches to strategic urban transport assessment

Most transport assessment is generally based on incremental analysis of individual projects with pre-existing planning and political support. Unfortunately, this approach to transport decision-making is unlikely to result in cities being able to meet a comprehensive range of desired urban objectives on a broader-scale over time. Project analysis is generally based on benefit-cost analysis and intermediate metrics (vehicle kilometres travelled, time savings and road user costs). But additional metrics and attributes may be needed to assess goals and performance relating to broader transport outcomes in a metropolitan region and its society, environment and economy. ‘Higher level’ strategic urban transport analysis offers the opportunity of a more strategic platform for metropolitan region-wide transport policy discussion, assessment, planning and network improvements. It may also assist to demonstrate mass transit, walking and cycling's unique opportunities to contribute to better city futures through economic development, sustainability, and lifestyle improvements. In the realm of mass transit, improvements can be delivered by targeted changes in policy, infrastructure and network enhancements, improved service characteristics, better network utilisation, and stronger system financial performance. Performance of passenger rail networks, corridors and proposals is a substantial research focus, but improvements to rail over time should ultimately be reflected in a wider set of outcomes and measurables. This paper reviews established literature and research on transport analysis approaches, to identify key performance indicators at an urban or metropolitan level, metrics on the utilisation and effectiveness of rail mass transit, accessibility indicators, and a handful of broader social, economic and environmental performance indicators.

Applying Emerging Private-Sector Probe-Based Speed Data in the National Capital Region's Planning Processes

Public-sector applications of emerging private-sector probe-based travel time and speed data have been mainly for real-time traffic operations and incident and special events management; such data have rarely been used for metropolitan planning organizations’ planning programs or processes. Using data from the I-95 Corridor Coalition Vehicle Probe Project in the National Capital Region, this paper explores the possible planning applications of such operations data, including the congestion management process, management and operations planning, air-quality conformity analysis, and travel demand modeling. The paper demonstrates several important probe data–based performance measures in metropolitan transportation planning, especially for areas without comprehensive traffic detection systems. It also summarizes the advantages and caveats of the probe data and lessons learned from the experience.

Choice of Metropolitan Transport Planning Process and Transpot Authority Organization

Choice of Metropolitan Transport Planning Process and Transpot Authority Organization

Inter-local government collaboration and perceived transaction costs in Indonesian metropolitan transport planning

The Indonesian reformation of 1998 marked a fundamental turning point of this country's democracy. In the administrative sector, the so-called Decentralisation Act 22/1999 was enacted to reform a formerly centralistic system. A strong central government used to maintain a hierarchical spatial planning system. It has been overruled, however, by the emergence of equally powered local governments. This paper discusses the relationship between Indonesian decentralisation and the phenomenon of fragmented local governments, which in turn has led to fragmented metropolitan transport planning. Transaction cost theory is utilised given the fact that, since decentralisation, comprehensive metropolitan transport planning relies much on inter-local governments' voluntary collaboration. The success of metropolitan transport planning collaboration is influenced by planning actors' perceived transaction cost. Through the application of Q-methodology in the case of Bandung Metropolitan Area, this article identifies four actors' perception systems. These perception systems accentuate, consecutively, legalistic and cultural local government aspects, the strengthening of local government authority in land-use planning, the establishment of supra-regional institutions, and, finally, socio-economic and political aspects. Findings suggest a provisional support among urban planners, politicians, administrators and legislators for decentralised local government in the field of transportation. However, a further establishment of formalised rules and practices of agreement making aimed at setting compliance and commitment will be essential. Also arrangements for regional strategy-making are deemed essential.

Consideration of Congestion Pricing and Managed Lanes in Metropolitan Transportation Planning

Under FHWA sponsorship, DKS Associates conducted a national scan of how agencies in major metropolitan areas are developing plans for congestion pricing, managed lanes, or both. Staff members from the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and the state department of transportation (DOT) in 10 metropolitan areas were surveyed to find out how they are including consideration of congestion pricing, managed lanes, or both in their metropolitan planning processes and the development of long-range transportation plans for the region. In addition, the study team identified projects already in operation in each region, those already in the long-range plan, and those being considered. The study results reported in this paper focused on how the MPOs, state DOTs, and other key agencies interact, contribute, and cooperate in considering congestion pricing or managed lanes. The study also produced information on methods used to evaluate these strategies, including modeling tools used, performance measures used, and how network effects, diversion of trips, and equity effects are taken into account. The study identified how federal grants were used to fund studies and projects in the early stages of consideration of congestion pricing or managed lanes in the 10 regions. Public and stakeholder involvement methods used by the MPOs and state DOTs to advance projects were also identified.