Abstract
The ability to analyze travel demand relationships and forecast future travel is necessary to clarify the issues that should be considered by decision makers and to assist them in making transportation service decisions. The range of transportation decisions is broad, ranging from small scale operational improvements to major investment decisions. To increase the probability of implementing good planning decisions, an analyst will often use models to assist in traffic forecasting. A review of urban travel demand models illustrates the availability of a wide variety of techniques ranging from complex computerized simulation models to very simple algebraic techniques. The methodological challenge of demand analysis is that the utilized demand model must be capable of accurately predicting to the required degree of detail the demand for travel that is relevant to the stated analysis objectives, within the constraints of available data, dollars, computer resources, and manpower. In this dissertation, the focus was on identifying the major factors which are currently considered in the the evaluation and selection of travel demand analysis techniques and software within an urban agency environment. In addition, the major factors that should influence the evaluation and selection of alternative demand analysis techniques were explicitly defined and incorporated into a decision-making framework for effective evaluation and utilization of these techniques. The main findings of this dissertation are: (1) In selecting and using demand analysis techniques, urban agencies are constrained in one way or another by interagency coordination, compatibility with presently accepted techniques, availability of good quality relevant data, the demand analysis software at hand, and staff capabilities. (2) For the majority of urban planning agencies, factors such as interagency coordination, ease of operation/user friendliness, and quality of output are more significant in the selection and use of demand analysis software than the theoretical soundness and capabilities of the demand models available in the software...
El-Araby, Khaled Adel (1992). Evaluation and selection of urban transportation planning techniques. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -1348968.