Travel Demand Forecasting Using Microsimulation: Initial Results from Case Study in Pennsylvania

Author(s):  
Jin-Hyuk Chung ◽  
Konstadinos G. Goulias

A new practical method for more accurately estimating traffic volumes in regional transportation networks by using demographic micro-simulation is described. The method, called MIDAS-USA-Version I (MUVI), is combined with another method, access management impact simulation, which uses a geographic information system as a support tool, and can create detailed highway networks that can be used in regional models. Initial results from a case study in Centre County, Pennsylvania, are presented. The case study compares sociodemographic characteristics and the resulting traffic volumes on the regional transportation network with observed data and indicates the efficacy of the concept and the models used. This method is designed to be applied anywhere in the United States, because the basic input data are always available.

Author(s):  
Venu M. Garikapati ◽  
Daehyun You ◽  
Wenwen Zhang ◽  
Ram M. Pendyala ◽  
Subhrajit Guhathakurta ◽  
...  

This paper presents a methodology for the calculation of the consumption of household travel energy at the level of the traffic analysis zone (TAZ) in conjunction with information that is readily available from a standard four-step travel demand model system. This methodology embeds two algorithms. The first provides a means of allocating non-home-based trips to residential zones that are the source of such trips, whereas the second provides a mechanism for incorporating the effects of household vehicle fleet composition on fuel consumption. The methodology is applied to the greater Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan region in the United States and is found to offer a robust mechanism for calculating the footprint of household travel energy at the level of the individual TAZ; this mechanism makes possible the study of variations in the energy footprint across space. The travel energy footprint is strongly correlated with the density of the built environment, although socioeconomic differences across TAZs also likely contribute to differences in travel energy footprints. The TAZ-level calculator of the footprint of household travel energy can be used to analyze alternative futures and relate differences in the energy footprint to differences in a number of contributing factors and thus enables the design of urban form, formulation of policy interventions, and implementation of awareness campaigns that may produce more-sustainable patterns of energy consumption.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiong Bao ◽  
Yongjun Shen ◽  
Lieve Creemers ◽  
Bruno Kochan ◽  
Tom Bellemans ◽  
...  

Nowadays, considerable attention has been paid to the activity-based approach for transportation planning and forecasting by both researchers and practitioners. However, one of the practical limitations of applying most of the currently available activity-based models is their computation time, especially when large amount of population and detailed geographical unit level are taken into account. In this research, we investigated the possibility of restraining the size of the study area in order to reduce the computation time when applying an activity-based model, as it is often the case that only a small territory rather than the whole region is the focus of a specific study. By introducing an accuracy level of the model, we proposed in this research an iteration approach to determine the minimum size of the study area required for a target territory. In the application, we investigated the required minimum size of the study area surrounding each of the 327 municipalities in Flanders, Belgium, with regard to two different transport modes, that is, car as driver and public transport. Afterwards, a validation analysis and a case study were conducted. All the experiments were carried out by using the FEATHERS, an activity-based microsimulation modeling framework currently implemented for the Flanders region of Belgium.


Author(s):  
Lidia Zakowska ◽  
Maciej Adam Piwowarczyk ◽  
Jan Hipolit Aleksandrowicz

New transport philosophy follows the equity criteria and should also lead toward sustainability and equity in building policies of public transport in cities. Implementation of free public transport for citizens is widely considered in different countries, cities and on several administrative government levels. However, there are not may examples of successful implementation if this concept in Europe. This work presents the discussion on multi-dimensional barriers, which make implementation of equity criteria to transport policies difficult. Both advantages and disadvantages of free of charge public transport system are presented, based on current discussions, as well as  on some European examples, case studies and scientific evaluations. The case study simulation for the Krakow urban area is initiated and described, testing the effects of free of charge public transport on economic and mobility factors. Considerations presented in this work are based on current challenges to build green with multimodal transport, respecting factors of economy, traffic volumes, safety and environmental factors. It is predicted that success of free public transport for citizens could create a significant shift in travel demand from private car use toward trams and busses, reducing accident costs, decreasing congestion in city centers and limiting air pollution, contributing to social and economic growth of the whole metropolitan area.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.3523


Author(s):  
David L. Kurth ◽  
At van den Hout ◽  
Berry Ives

Recent model development efforts for the travel demand forecasting process have focused on increasing the consistency and reasonableness of the results. A major target of these efforts has been the traffic assignment process and, more specifically, improving the estimates of congested travel speeds resulting from traffic assignments. A number of studies and enhancements have centered on the volume-delay functions used for the assignment process. Many of these studies have used the workhorse volume-delay function, the BPR function, and have investigated modifications to the function coefficients. In its recent update of the Albuquerque Area Travel Models, the Middle Rio Grande Council of Governments successfully implemented a regional traffic assignment process based on capacity estimation techniques and volume-delay functions documented in the Highway Capacity Manual. The assignment procedures developed for the Albuquerque area resulted in volume-delay functions that produced accurate traffic volumes while producing accurate congested speeds on the network. The capacity estimation procedures increase the realism of the network representation and provide increased analysis flexibility. Commercially available travel demand modeling software has been used to implement the Highway Capacity Manual–based volume-delay functions.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Scheibelhofer

This paper focuses on gendered mobilities of highly skilled researchers working abroad. It is based on an empirical qualitative study that explored the mobility aspirations of Austrian scientists who were working in the United States at the time they were interviewed. Supported by a case study, the paper demonstrates how a qualitative research strategy including graphic drawings sketched by the interviewed persons can help us gain a better understanding of the gendered importance of social relations for the future mobility aspirations of scientists working abroad.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sarmistha R. Majumdar

Fracking has helped to usher in an era of energy abundance in the United States. This advanced drilling procedure has helped the nation to attain the status of the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, but some of its negative externalities, such as human-induced seismicity, can no longer be ignored. The occurrence of earthquakes in communities located at proximity to disposal wells with no prior history of seismicity has shocked residents and have caused damages to properties. It has evoked individuals’ resentment against the practice of injection of fracking’s wastewater under pressure into underground disposal wells. Though the oil and gas companies have denied the existence of a link between such a practice and earthquakes and the local and state governments have delayed their responses to the unforeseen seismic events, the issue has gained in prominence among researchers, affected community residents, and the media. This case study has offered a glimpse into the varied responses of stakeholders to human-induced seismicity in a small city in the state of Texas. It is evident from this case study that although individuals’ complaints and protests from a small community may not be successful in bringing about statewide changes in regulatory policies on disposal of fracking’s wastewater, they can add to the public pressure on the state government to do something to address the problem in a state that supports fracking.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Miriam R. Aczel ◽  
Karen E. Makuch

This case study analyzes the potential impacts of weakening the National Park Service’s (NPS) “9B Regulations” enacted in 1978, which established a federal regulatory framework governing hydrocarbon rights and extraction to protect natural resources within the parks. We focus on potential risks to national parklands resulting from Executive Orders 13771—Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs [1]—and 13783—Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth [2]—and subsequent recent revisions and further deregulation. To establish context, we briefly overview the history of the United States NPS and other relevant federal agencies’ roles and responsibilities in protecting federal lands that have been set aside due to their value as areas of natural beauty or historical or cultural significance [3]. We present a case study of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) situated within the Bakken Shale Formation—a lucrative region of oil and gas deposits—to examine potential impacts if areas of TRNP, particularly areas designated as “wilderness,” are opened to resource extraction, or if the development in other areas of the Bakken near or adjacent to the park’s boundaries expands [4]. We have chosen TRNP because of its biodiversity and rich environmental resources and location in the hydrocarbon-rich Bakken Shale. We discuss where federal agencies’ responsibility for the protection of these lands for future generations and their responsibility for oversight of mineral and petroleum resources development by private contractors have the potential for conflict.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document