PHOENIX COMMERCIAL VEHICLE SURVEY AND TRAVEL MODELS

The primary objectives of the Phoenix urban truck travel model project, which was conducted for the Arizona Transportation Research Center, Arizona Department of Transportation, were to conduct a travel survey of commercial vehicles operating within the Phoenix metropolitan area and to use the data collected in this survey to develop commercial vehicle trip generation, distribution, and traffic assignment models. The models are designed to be incorporated into the Urban Transportation Planning System-based travel model system maintained by the Maricopa Association of Governments Transportation and Planning Office, which predicts highway and transit system usage throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. The urban truck travel model project, including the methods used to collect commercial vehicle travel data, the types of information provided by the survey, and model development using the survey data, is summarized, and the issue of the transferability of the results of this project to other urban areas is discussed. Thus, the commercial vehicle travel patterns identified in Phoenix, and the travel forecasting models based on these patterns, may also be useful in other urban areas that are similar to Phoenix with respect to their mix of commercial and industrial activities and their history of growth and development into major metropolitan regions.