Exploring and Developing Innovative Methods for Estimating VMT on Local Roads in Texas

State agencies must report vehicle miles traveled (VMT) estimates for local roads compiled in the statewide summaries dataset of the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) database. While the VMTs for higher functional class roads are the product of annual average daily traffic (AADT) with the corresponding roadway segment length (L); the states produce the VMT estimates for local roads as an aggregate measure using a variety of methods. Currently, the local road network accounts for more than two-thirds (67%) of the total roadway mileage in Texas and is the largest in the United States. Conducting short-term counts (STCs) (e.g., for a few hours up to a few weeks) on an extensive local road network to develop VMT is financially challenging; hence, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) uses statistical methods to obtain aggregated VMT. Although the current methods are statistically verified, they are yet to be revised and validated. The research team will investigate and develop data-driven methods for VMT estimation that can be implemented in Texas and provide significant savings to TxDOT. The developed methods will also reduce any bias in the estimation of VMTs on local roads that can lead to the overestimation or underestimation of travel demand.

• Record URL:
  https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/Presto/project=0-7187

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $399270
• Contract Numbers:

  0-7187

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Texas Department of Transportation

  125 E. 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483
• Managing Organizations:

  Texas Department of Transportation

  125 E. 11th Street
  Austin, TX  United States  78701-2483
• Project Managers:

  Schwerdt, Tom

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute

  Texas A&M University System
  3135 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135

  Texas State University, San Marcos

  JCK Building, Suite 489
  San Marcos, TX  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Sharma, Sushant

• Start Date: 20230905
• Expected Completion Date: 20250831
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Data analysis; Estimating; Vehicle miles of travel
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01894820
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Texas Department of Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 0-7187
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Sep 27 2023 3:32PM