Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) Peer Review
1.0 Introduction
The views expressed in this document do not represent the opinions of FHWA and do not constitute an endorsement, recommendation or specification by FHWA. The document is based solely on the discussions that took place during the peer review sessions and supporting technical documentation provided by Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC).
The FHWA would like to acknowledge the peer review members for volunteering their time to participate in this peer review. Panel members include:
- Suzanne Childress-Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC);
- Kyung-Hwa Kim-Atlanta Regional Council (ARC);
- Arash Mirzaei-North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG);
- Kermit Wies-Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP);
- Ken Cervenka (Peer Review Advisor)-Federal Transit Administration (FTA); and
- Nathaniel Coley (Peer Review Advisor)-Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Additional biographical information of each peer review panel member is located in appendix C.
This peer review was supported by the Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP), sponsored by FHWA. TMIP sponsors peer reviews in order that planning agencies can receive guidance from and ask questions of officials from other planning agencies across the nation. The peer review process is specifically aimed at providing feedback to agencies on travel modeling endeavors.
The primary objective of the DVRPC peer review was for DVRPC to receive guidance on their activity-based model, which currently is under development, and to receive feedback on several other modeling tools (e.g., operations and transit modeling).
The peer review panel convened for one day and one-half day (October 29, 2014 to October 30, 2014). During that time, DVRPC presented background information and asked for guidance in specific areas of their modeling practices, and the panel discussed these items and offered a series of formal recommendations to DVRPC.
The remainder of this report is organized into the following sections:
- Overview of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)-This section highlights the responsibilities of the agency as well as some key characteristics of the Greater Philadelphia region.
- Development of the DVRPC Model-This section discusses DVRPC's existing model, previous peer reviews conducted for the modeling of the agency, and the agency's goals for the current peer review.
- Transportation Model Improvement Plan-This section details DVRPC's modeling needs and how some of the areas of the current model do not meet these needs. The section also details the development plan for the activity-based model the agency currently is developing.
- Peer Review Discussion-This section details the key discussions had by the peer review with DVRPC over the course of the one-and-one-half-day peer review meeting.
- Peer Review Recommendations-This section highlights the official recommendations made by the peer review panel. Some of the key discussion points are revisited here, but some new details also are added.
Four appendices also are included:
- Appendix A-List of Peer Review Panel Participants;
- Appendix B-Peer Review Panel Meeting Agenda;
- Appendix C-Peer Review Panel Member Biographies; and
- Appendix D-Documentation Provided to Panel Members by DVRPC.
