Peer Review Process Guide: How to Get the Most Out of Your TMIP Peer Review

Table of Contents

Original: October 30, 2009
Final: November 18, 2009

Prepared by
John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Research and Innovative Technology Administration
U.S. Department of Transportation

Prepared for
Federal Highway Administration

Report number
FHWA-HEP-10-013

TMIP is funded by the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Planning, Environment and Realty's Surface Transportation Environment and Planning Cooperative Research Program (STEP).

• Technical Report Documentation Page
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• I. Introduction
• II. Overview of TMIP Peer Review Process
• III. Deciding Whether to Have a Peer Review
• IV. Initiating a Peer Review
• V. Planning a Peer Review Meeting
• VI. Conducting the Peer Review Meeting
• VII. Developing an Implementation Plan
• VIII. Evaluating Progress
• Appendix A. Additional Learning Opportunities Available
• Appendix B. Sample Peer Review Application
• Appendix C. Examples of Peer Review Agendas
• Appendix D. TMIP Peer Review Evaluation Form

Notice

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of information exchange. The United State Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof.

The United States Government does not endorse manufacturers or products. Trade names appear in the document only because they are essential to the content of the report.

This report is being distributed through the Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP).

Technical Report Documentation Page

1. Report No.: FHWA-HEP-10-013
2. Government Accession No.
3. Recipient's Catalog No.
4. Title and Subtitle: TMIP Peer Review Process Guide How to Get the Most Out of Your Peer Review
5. Report Date: November 2009
6. Performing Organization Code: HW1W
7. Author(s): Ann Steffes, Terry Regan*, Susan Smichenko, Anna Biton
8. Performing Organization Report No.:
9. Performing Organization Name and Address:
   U.S. Department of Transportation
   Research and Innovative Technologies Administration
   John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
   Cambridge, MA 02142
10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS):
11. Contract or Grant No.:
12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address:
    U.S. DOT/FHWA's Office of Planning, Environment and Realty
    1200 New Jersey Ave SE
    HEPP-30
    Washington, DC 20590
13. Type of Report and Period Covered: Final report: November 2009
14. Sponsoring Agency Code:
15. Supplementary Notes
    *MacroSys, Inc.
    55 Broadway
    Cambridge, MA 02142-1093
16. Abstract: A peer review is an excellent way for an agency to get feedback on its current travel model and to receive recommendations on how to proceed with model improvements. However, as anyone who has hosted a peer review knows, it is not a minor undertaking. The decisions and tasks involved in a peer review require careful consideration and a commitment to spending the resources necessary to conduct the best possible peer review. To help agencies make decisions when considering, planning, conducting, or following up on a peer review, the FHWA Travel Model Improvement Program engaged the U.S. DOT Volpe Center to develop the Peer Review Process Guide: How to Get the Most out of Your Peer Review. This guide, developed in consultation with several travel modeling experts, contains practical "how to" information for agencies considering or planning a peer review. The Guide describes the necessary steps and decisions in the peer review process and offers instructions and advice on how to complete each step. Modelers, planners, and managers in agencies that are considering travel model improvements will find this Guide a tremendous help as they make their way through the peer review process, from considering whether to have a peer review to evaluating progress on implementing recommendations.
17. Key Words: Travel model, Travel Model Improvement Plan, peer review, handbook
18. Distribution Statement:
19. Security Classif. (of this report): Unclassified
20. Security Classif. (of this page): Unclassified
21. No. of Pages: 39
22. Price:

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72)
Reproduction of completed page authorized

Abbreviations

DOT

Department of Transportation

FHWA

Federal Highway Administration

FTA

Federal Transit Administration

ITE

Institute of Transportation Engineers

MPO

Metropolitan Planning Organization

NHI

National Highway Institute

TMIP

Travel Model Improvement Program

TRB

Transportation Research Board

UPWP

Unified Planning Work Program

US

United States

Acknowledgements

The Travel Model Improvement Program would like to thank the members of the Guide Review Group who dedicated their time and expertise to this guide: Paul Agnello, Ken Cervenka, Phil Mescher, Maren Outwater, Eric Pihl, Guy Rousseau, Erik Sabina, and Kermit Wies.

Preface

The purpose of the Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) is to advance the state of the practice of travel modeling.  The program's goals are to:

• Help planning agencies build their institutional capacity to develop and deliver travel-related information to support transportation and planning decisions;
• Develop and improve travel modeling techniques that respond to the needs of the planning and environmental decisionmaking processes; and
• Develop mechanisms to ensure the quality of travel modeling results used to support decisionmaking and to meet local, state, and Federal program requirements.

TMIP provides services to support planning agencies that have Federal responsibility to build and maintain travel models, typically state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations.  One of these services is the Peer Review Program.

TMIP's Peer Review Program gives transportation planning agencies the opportunity to have their model reviewed by modeling experts from around the country.  These experts make recommendations on how to proceed with model enhancements to ensure that the techniques being developed or implemented meet the current and future needs of the agency.