Multi-city Direct-Demand Models of Peak Period Bicycle and Pedestrian Traffic

In order to shift trips to non-motorized modes, transportation planners and engineers need better spatial estimates of walking and cycling traffic as an input to the planning process; for example, to assess exposure to hazards, evaluate infrastructure investments, or locate facilities. Direct-demand models are useful tools for generating spatial estimates of pedestrian and cyclist traffic volumes. The project team's proposed work aims to address a key issue with single-city direct-demand models of bicycle and pedestrian traffic (i.e., that models are typically not transferable between cities). The team's research approach involves mainly three tasks: (1) compile the first multi-city dataset of bicycle and pedestrian traffic counts using the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project (NBPDP) count repository, (2) assemble a geocoded, national-level database of predictor variables (e.g., land use, transportation, demographic) at each count location, (3) combine outputs from Tasks 1 & 2 to develop multi-city direct-demand models of bicycle and pedestrian traffic. The project team expects two novel outcomes from their multi-city models. First, their models will yield more generalizable results about how certain aspects of the built environment are correlated with bicycle and pedestrian traffic (i.e., since the team's models will be developed from counts in multiple cities across the US). Second, the team will be able to generate spatial estimates in communities with few or no counts with greater confidence than previous, single-city models. The project team expects that their models could be coupled with efforts to tailor non-motorized traffic count campaigns for model-building to develop more robust models in future research.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT13-G-UTC33

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

  Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
  3500 Transportation Research Plaza
  Blacksburg, VA  United States  24061

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability Center

  University of Virginia
  Charlottesville, VA  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Buehler, Ralph

  Hankey, Steve

• Start Date: 20160601
• Expected Completion Date: 20170531
• Actual Completion Date: 20170531

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Built environment; Cities; Cyclists; Databases; Demand; Mathematical models; Peak hour traffic; Pedestrian traffic; Traffic counts; Traffic volume
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01645875
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT13-G-UTC33
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Sep 8 2017 9:56AM