Alternative Planning Tool for Small Metropolitan Planning Organization in Utah

Current practice in modeling network traffic for planning applications is a four-step travel demand forecasting model (trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and traffic assignment) that requires travel surveys and specialized technical staff to operate. Although such a modeling approach has been used in practice in major metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), many small MPOs usually do not have sufficient resources to conduct travel surveys or to house technical staff for model development and maintenance. The purpose of this paper is to develop a simplified planning tool specifically targeted at small MPOs. A case study of a small MPO in Utah demonstrates how the tool can be implemented in practice.