Implementing an Advanced Open-Source Activity Based Travel Demand Model to Support Rural Transportation Planning and Policy Decisions: Phase 2 – Calibration
Travel demand models (TDMs) are used to support state and regional transportation planning and policy decisions. TDMs were originally developed to forecast passenger traffic volumes with the primary objective of identifying investments to reduce traffic congestion. Today, TDMs are used to support a much broader range of purposes, including multimodal and freight transportation planning, demand management strategies, forecasting transportation access outcomes, evaluating network resiliency to disasters, and modeling air quality and public health impacts. However, the aggregate, trip based TDMs used by most regional and state transportation agencies lack the fidelity and sensitivity to evaluate contemporary planning and policy decisions. Activity based travel demand models (ABMs) offer substantial improvements and their agent-based simulation platforms allow for integration with agent-based population growth and land use simulation tools, among others. Despite their advantages, the complexity of ABMs has constrained their adoption to all but the largest metropolitan areas, often with support from academic researchers. Smaller urban areas and rural states like Vermont could benefit substantially from adopting ABMs. The goal of this project is to continue current National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST)-funded work on implementing a statewide ABM in Vermont using the POLARIS modeling system developed by Argonne National Lab. The current project is focused on initial model setup and testing. This Phase 2 project will focus on calibration and validation. The expected outcome is a calibrated implementation of the POLARIS modeling system for the state of Vermont that can be used for the evaluation of statewide and regional transportation planning and policy decisions and to advance research on rural transportation challenges.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $197,216.00
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Contract Numbers:
DOT 69A3552348319
DOT 69A3552344814
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590National Center for Sustainable Transportation
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA United States Transportation Research Center
Burlington, Vermont United States 05405 -
Managing Organizations:
National Center for Sustainable Transportation
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA United StatesUniversity of California, Davis
1 Shields Ave
Davis, California United States 95616 Transportation Research Center
Burlington, Vermont United States 05405 -
Project Managers:
Cliff, Sydney
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Performing Organizations:
National Center for Sustainable Transportation
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA United States Transportation Research Center
Burlington, Vermont United States 05405 -
Principal Investigators:
Rowangould, Gregory
- Start Date: 20260401
- Expected Completion Date: 20270331
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Activity choices; Calibration; Rural areas; Transportation planning; Travel demand
- Geographic Terms: Vermont
- Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General);
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01985477
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
- Contract Numbers: DOT 69A3552348319, DOT 69A3552344814
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Apr 12 2026 11:58PM