The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Planning, Environment and Realty's (HEP) Surface Transportation Environment and Planning Cooperative Research Program (STEP) ended on September 30, 2012. For current HEP research information, please see HEP's research web site.
Please note that for the purpose of this flow chart the arrow connect line symbol is represented by an image of a straight line with an arrow at the end. The data symbol is represented by an image of a parallelogram. The document symbol is represented by an image of rectangle with a curved bottom, sloped from the right to the left. The process symbol is represented by the image of a rectangle. The magnetic disk symbol is represented by the image of cylinder that looks like a can.
Description: From the left, an image of a tiny video camera facing right with three arrow connect lines, pointing from the lens of the camera. The first line points slightly up and to the right connecting to a data symbol containing the words vehicle counts, the second, or middle line points center right toward a data box containing the words vehicle classes (FHWA), the third line points slightly down to the right and toward a data symbol containing the words license plate numbers. The first data symbol containing the words vehicle counts has an arrow connect line pointing toward a light yellow document symbol containing the words vehicle counts by EMFAC and mobile6 classes. The second data symbol containing the words vehicle classes (FHWA) has an arrow connect line pointing toward a light yellow document symbol containing the words vehicle counts by MOVES classes. The third data symbol containing the words license plate numbers has an arrow connect line pointing to a light blue magnetic disk symbol containing the words vehicle registration database. This symbol has two arrow connect lines, the first line points slightly up and to the right toward, a data symbol containing the letters VIN, which has a connect arrow pointing toward a light blue process symbol containing the words VIN decoder. The second arrow connect line stemming from the symbol representing the registration database points slightly down and to the right toward a data symbol containing the words model year, which has a connect line linking it to a light yellow document symbol containing the words age distribution profile. The left to right flow of the diagram stops, and is picked back up from the right side of the diagram with the light blue process symbol containing the words VIN decoder, a continuous arrow connect line stems from the right side of this symbol, points up then connects toward the left to the data symbol containing the word others, the arrow connect line continues up, and connects toward the left to a data symbol containing the words fuel type, which connects upper left to the light yellow document symbol containing the words vehicle counts by EMFAC and MOBILE6 classes. The line which started with the light blue VIN decoder process symbol continues up to the top of the diagram and connects to a data symbol containing the word weight, which has an arrow connect line pointing slightly down linking to the light yellow box containing the words vehicle counts by EMFAC and MOBILE6 classes.
The overall image is a flow chart describing the methodology to characterize vehicle fleet characteristics based on license plate survey.
Source: Kanok Boriboonsomsin, Ph.D., P.E. Center for Environmental Research and Technology, University of California
