Recent Methodological Advances in Urban Transportation Planning

Abstract

The four-step transportation planning methodology—trip generation, distribution, modal split, and traffic assignment—was developed decades ago and is still largely the platform of many existing models in practice. Nevertheless, in the past decade, new approaches have been developed to augment and improve components of this platform or to seek new modeling paradigms. It is timely to take inventory of what we have so far and to provide a preview of what lies ahead. In fact, in terms of methodological advances, improving the planning process to make it more accurate and reflective of reality is one important aspect. It is often criticized that the sequential four-step planning procedure, lacking feedback between steps, comes-up short of capturing actual behavior. Another aspect in methodological advances, equally important, is to broaden the consideration to include vital elements that were ignored in the past. Planning procedures that incorporate environmental and sustainability considerations are such good examples. This special issue is the first part of two issues on this topic. This special issue focuses on recent methodological advances in urban transportation planning; the upcoming issue pertains to emerging techniques for urban transportation planning. Four papers are contained in this special issue, as summarized below. The paper by Boyce, ‘‘Is the Sequential Travel Forecasting Paradigm Counterproductive?’’ provides an overview of the historical development and applications of the sequential travel forecasting procedure. The author questions the validity of the current paradigm, pointing to the shortcomings of considering the procedure as individual steps. The author then proposes a new travel-forecasting paradigm that integrates travel choices, leading to an integrated, internally consistent travel and route choice model. The paper by Black et al., ‘‘Sustainable Urban Transportation: Performance Indicators and Some Analytical Approaches,’’ begins by stating the importance of considering sustainability in urban transport planning and the lack of analytical tools for this purpose, including the lack of appropriate sustainability indicators. The authors then propose a study framework, define sustainability indicators, and depict tools for the analysis, using Sydney, Australia as a case study for illustration purposes. EDITORIAL

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