To help focus the peer panel's recommendations and review, CCMPO staff provided a list of Short (one to two years) and Long Term (two to five years) modeling priorities given available resources and on-going planning initiatives. The modeling priorities document circulated to the panel prior to Session #3 is provided in Appendix E.
Modeling mixed land uses to support additional non-motorized and transit use
Many CCMPO policies and planning goals are supportive of mixed use dense clusters of land use and analytical tools which are sensitive to these characteristics are critical.
Improving air quality and climate change modeling
CCMPO is participating in efforts to inventory greenhouse gas emissions and has a good chance of going out of air quality attainment for ozone. The transportation model will likely be used in concert with other tools (e.g. MOVES) to support analysis of these issues in the near future.
Reviewing sensitivity to increased travel costs (e.g. gasoline) in the model
Gasoline prices are on the rise again and it would be very helpful to have guidance regarding how other regions are considering this in their regional modeling efforts.
Refinements to 1996 FHWA Quick Response Freight Manual truck modeling
The current quick response based truck modeling approach used in the model generates a significant number of light truck trips (e.g. service and delivery vehicles) - about 100,000 or 13 percent of the total daily trips in the model.CCMPO is interested in examining this aspect of the model to see if a different approach or parameters are warranted for this and potentially other truck trip types.
Visualization techniques and performance measures for better communication to stakeholders
CCMPO has used flow maps, measures of VMT, congested VMT, hours of delay, and other commonly used techniques to present model results to policy makers and the general public. Feedback from peers on any particularly effective measures or techniques to communicate modeling output to a broad audience is of great interest to the MPO.
Recommendations regarding interaction/integration between model and microsimulation tools
CCMPO has a number of corridor studies planned over the next few years. The regional model is expected to be used in most of these studies along with other more detailed capacity analysis tools, such as Synchro or VISSIM. One approach under consideration is developing a protocol to interact between TransCAD and the PTV Vision suite (VISUM and VISSIM). Another approach to this issue would be the use of Dynamic Traffic Assignment tools. Feedback from peers on the above or other corridor-level analysis techniques would be very helpful.
Transition to activity-based demand models
There are compelling reasons to consider transitioning to an activity-based model approach, including the fact that RSG has already completed initial work on a DaySim implementation for Chittenden County related to a research study for which they received US DOT funding. The increased complexity of preparing model inputs for future years is of concern to CCMPO staff. A review of the potential pros and cons of moving from a more traditional 4-step model to an activity based model from the peers would be helpful in determining where this change fits in with CCMPO's resources.
Expanding the model geography and integration with State-wide model
This will be an on-going policy discussion with our neighboring jurisdictions and will also require coordination with the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the University of Vermont Transportation Research Center. The feedback received in the first two peer review sessions has highlighted several issues to be studied on this topic. Any additional thoughts are welcome.
Recommendations regarding land use forecasting tools and existing LUAM
Land use forecasting tools have not been a focus of discussion in the review process to date. Based on the brief conversation at the end of Session #2 regarding this subject, CCMPO may pursue additional feedback outside of this peer process. Suggestions from reviewers regarding land use forecasting models or techniques which may be suitable for CCMPO and references to applications in other regions would be valuable.
