TMIP strives to facilitate technology deployment and promote good practices. Outcome is what matters most. Each of the initiatives in the program is designed to meet the needs of state, regional, and local transportation planning agencies. TMIP staff members constantly monitor the industry trends and community needs and adjust initiatives to meet new, emerging needs. Each TMIP activity plays an important part in fulfilling TMIP's vision.
TMIP Webinars
Webinars are an important contribution that TMIP makes to the community. These webinars provide an extensive amount of information using limited resources. The WKIE and WOW webinars are unique in that they offer a cost-effective means of sharing noteworthy practices to build professional capacity in modeling and analytical techniques. WKIE sessions provide a forum for the TMIP Community to share knowledge and experiences, while WOW sessions deliver highly technical knowledge with a practical focus through comprehensive education sessions on a single topic. Ranging from 12-session series to one-session briefings, these webinars provide a classroom-like setting in which agency members can ask questions and spend time delving into complex information to expand their knowledge base in a cost-effective manner.
With an abundance of readily available information, these series aim to meet immediate local, Metropolitan Area Organization (MPO), and state agency needs. The webinar sessions are recorded so that they can be accessed on demand. By making these WKIE and WOW sessions available, TMIP's webinars make it possible for agencies and professionals to access a variety of materials, resources, and expert advice regarding the application and advancement of individual tools in planning practices.
Peer Reviews
TMIP Peer Reviews offer another venue for building state, regional and local agency capacity to promote good practices. The focused professional and peer networking opportunities that are fostered through the Peer Review Program promote the sharing and transfer of valuable information, skills, and expertise among transportation planning agencies. The opportunity to exchange different viewpoints and solutions to complex behavioral and computational problems can provide highly valuable perspective and understanding on specific topics for the peer review participants. This knowledge sharing and promotion of good practice is critically important as advanced tools and techniques become more widely adopted in the transportation planning community and as agency staff are simultaneously asked to conduct more detailed analyses using less time and funding.
Agency satisfaction in the Peer Review Program has been quite high. During post-Peer Review evaluations, agencies feel-almost universally-that the peer reviews meet or exceed the host agency's expectations. The Peer Review panels are characterized as collegial, technically skilled, and generally interested in helping the host agency while promoting improved techniques and methods.
At A Glance Series
It is extremely easy to obtain information with so many resources available at the click of a button. However, it is important to note that more information does not equate to useful information. The At A Glance series lends efficiency to the TMIP Community through its ability to eliminate the time-consuming process of searching through superfluous documentation to locate relevant, reliable, and current information. At A Glance brochures provide logical, succinct one-stop references that fill the gaps between superficial summaries and lengthy, technical documents.
TMIP Talks
Though in initial planning stages, the TMIP Talks Initiative has the potential to stimulate conversations focused on critical issues relevant to the present and future of transportation planning.
TMIP Agency Snapshot Report Series
The TMIP Agency Snapshot Report Series provides the latest information in a concise, yet comprehensive, style that is easily accessible for reference by state and local planning agencies. The Agency Snapshot Report Series also helps minimize the cost of reinventing the wheel by identifying common issues and needs expressed by planning agencies that have led to focused research efforts and demonstrated successes.
TMIP Toolbox
The TMIP Toolbox will help to identify and develop robust, reliable, and helpful travel analysis data, tools, and methods.
TMIP Online Community of Practice
The TMIP|COP aims to create a true sense of community by facilitating streams of communication between agency members, consultants, and associated professionals. Through the TMIP|COP, the TMIP Program strives to provide a national platform for public agency staff and travel modeling and analysis professionals to collaborate on various technical topics.
TMIP Website
The TMIP Website affords TMIP a simplistic medium to more effectively and efficiently provide information and services to the TMIP Community and, more importantly, to those unfamiliar with the TMIP Program. The website also provides a means to coordinate TMIP initiatives with other FHWA programs.
There are a number of ways to gauge the success of a program, but few are as forthright as feedback provided directly from the program's users. Bhupendra Patel, Senior Transportation Modeler at the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG), noted in his Oct 18, 2013 email feedback:
The Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) and constructive approach of TMIP staffs is a great resource and investment for the Travel Demand Modeling profession. TMIP forum provides a whole range (basic/ fundamental-level to advanced-level) of technical and professional assistance to transportation modelers and helps inform multi-modal transportation investment around the world.
In a specific reference to AMBAG, a federally designated MPO in California, the TMIP program provided very specific assistance by conducting a peer review in March 2011 for our Model Improvement Plan. It was very successful and valuable to AMBAG, as well as our regional and local partner agencies. Technical and financial support as provided under the TMIP program helped us achieve the following goals:
Here is what Kevin Black[6] , another TMIP Community member, has to say about TMIP.
It is nice to have a forum where people can exchange questions and answers about the topics that they are dealing with in their work. In this capacity, TMIP serves as a teaching and training tool since some people are always entering the field and more experienced senior people can pass on knowledge before they leave.
The TMIP Community members both utilize and steer the program and its various initiatives. It is for these users that TMIP continues to offer services and provide the most relevant and useful information available.
[6] October 18, 2013 email feedback by Kevin Black, Senior Environmental Engineer at Federal Highway Administration
