Southeast Florida Transportation Council (SEFTC) Peer Review

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Disclaimer

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 Southeast Florida Transportation Council (SEFTC).

1.2 Acknowledgments

The FHWA would like to acknowledge the peer review members for volunteering their time to participate in this peer review. Panel members include:

• Greg Giaimo-Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT);
• Kostas Goulias-University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB);
• Elaine Martino-Martino Planning;
• Birat Pandey-Baltimore Metropolitan Council (BMC);
• Eric Phil - Federal Highway Administration (FHWA); and
• Ken Cervenka (Peer Review Advisor)-Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

Additional biographical information of each peer review panel member is located in appendix C.

1.3 Report Purpose

This peer review was supported by the Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP), sponsored by FHWA. TMIP sponsors peer reviews so 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 SEFTC peer review was for SEFTC to receive guidance on their activity-based travel demand model (SERPM 7.0) with a specific emphasis on the data collection activities SEFTC should pursue to aid calibration, validation, and further estimation of their model.

The peer review panel convened for one day (April 28^th, 2015). During that time, SEFTC 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 SEFTC.

1.4 Report Organization

The remainder of this report is organized into the following sections:

• Overview of the Southeast Florida Transportation Council (SEFTC)-This section highlights the responsibilities of the council as well as some key characteristics of the Southeast Florida region.
• Development of the SERPM 7.0 Model-This section discusses SEFTC's existing model and the agency's goals for the current peer review.
• Peer Review Discussion-This section details the key discussions of the peer review panel with SEFTC over the course of the one-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 SEFTC and Documents referenced in this report.