Accessing America's Great Outdoors: Forecasting Recreational Travel Demand

The objectives of this project are to develop the following: (1) A recreational travel demand model component that is compatible with and can be incorporated into, or used in conjunction with, transportation demand models currently in use by state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and other transportation planning agencies. (2) Guidelines for state DOTs and other affected transportation and land management agencies on enhanced recreational travel modeling using the recreational travel demand component: (a) Description and assessment of existing methods and procedures for evaluating recreational travel demand and associated data gaps, focusing on public lands (federal, state, and local). This assessment will provide the baseline needed for effective analytical approaches to measure the effects of changing recreational travel demand and the impact recreational travel has on transportation system performance. (b) Identification and exploration of factors driving recreational travel volumes and patterns. The outcome and products of this study should clearly describe which factors are correlated with recreational visitation (number of visitors to a site) versus which factors drive changes in recreational travel (travel to and from sites). These guidelines will help state DOTs and other transportation and land management agencies integrate recreational travel demand into overall transportation system planning and forecasting, enabling affected jurisdictions to make better-informed decisions about investments in multimodal transportation improvements, economic development, and other issues that may enhance traveler experience and improve quality of life for residents in affected communities.

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=4744

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $450000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 08-132

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Weeks, Jennifer

• Performing Organizations:

  Resource Systems Group Incorporated

  55 Rail Row
  White River Junction, VT  United States  05001
• Principal Investigators:

  Bradley, Mark

• Start Date: 20200805
• Expected Completion Date: 20230330
• Actual Completion Date: 20230330

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access; Forecasting; Guidelines; Investments; Metropolitan planning organizations; National parks; Recreation; Recreational trips; State departments of transportation; Tourism; Traffic volume; Travel demand; Travel patterns
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01707638
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 08-132
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jun 6 2019 8:06PM