CLE 3008 Transport Planning and Management

Unit 1 & 2 -Transport Planning Process and Surveys

Dr. S. Vasantha Kumar, Associate Professor, SCALE, VIT University

Email: svasanthakumar@vit.ac.in, Ph: 9444050435

Definition for Transport Planning

Transportation planning can be defined as the process which helps to provide the information
necessary for making decisions on when and where improvements should be made in the
transportation system keeping in view the community goals and objectives.

A transportation planner usually deals with three differing groups of individuals, namely, the
operators, users and non-users. Operator is concerned with the matters like capital costs,
operating costs, revenues and funding. Usually the operator is either a government or a private
operator. User whether a traveler or the customer of a freight/goods transportation undertaking is
concerned with factors like fare/tariff, journey time, safety, security, reliability, comfort and
convenience . People who are neither traveling on a particular system nor causing goods/people
to move are affected by the proposals of the transportation system and are called as non-users.
Example: Those who are affected by air & noise pollution, land use changes, visual intrusion,
social disturbance, etc. A good transportation plan is a plan that balances the needs of the
operator and the user against the benefits and disbenefits to the nonuser.

Definition for Urban Transport Planning (UTP)

It is the process of understanding the factors influencing the demand for urban travel,
development of relationships between the factors and the travel demand, and use of the
relationships to predict the future demand for travel and the resulting transport infrastructure
needs.

Types of UTP

1) Short and medium term transportation planning

2) Long term comprehensive transportation planning

Short and medium term transportation planning

Concerned with making existing systems as efficient as possible

Less complex

No great demands on construction activities and so no large capital requirements

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Examples of short and medium term transportation planning

1). Actions to ensure the efficient use of existing space

- Removal of on-street parking

- Removing encroachments

- Installation of a traffic signal

2). Actions to reduce vehicle use in congested areas

- Congestion pricing

- Restrictions for heavy vehicles during peak hours

3). Actions to improve transit service

- Increasing the frequency of buses

- Avoiding bus bunching

All these actions wont involve huge budget and can be carried out quickly without much time.
These short term measures are popularly called as Transportation system management (TSM)
measures.

Long term comprehensive transportation planning

More complex

Require huge financial expenditures and involve large and extensive construction
programs

Involve major changes to be made to the existing facilities and long range policy actions.

Systems approach to Transport planning process

Systems approach means an approach which involves a clear evaluation of all the
elements that structure the problem in order to achieve a given objective.

The systems approach of Transport planning process can be divided into 2 parts,
philosophical and operational as shown below.

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The philosophical part involves goals, objectives and standards as explained below.

Goals : Set of statements that attempt to convey the planner an image of the ideal system

Objective: Lower order goal which atleast conceptually capable of being measured

Standard: Lower order than an objective and represents a condition that is capable of both
measurement and attainment

Example for Goal, Objective and Standard

Goal: Encourage the use of public transport

Objectives

Minimize travel time by public transport buses

Minimize travel cost by public transport buses

Provide adequate number of buses

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Standard

The travel time by PT between major activity centres not to exceed 30 min.

The travel cost by PT not to exceed 15% of the cost by private transport

The frequency of service on any route should be not less than 3 per hour

The major step in operational side is modelling. Modelling part involves the collection of
required data for analyzing the existing travel pattern and then building models to predict the
future travel demand using the 4 step process, namely, trip generation, trip distribution, modal
split analysis and traffic assignment.

Trip generation Involves the forecasting of the number of trips that will be made in
future target/horizon year

Trip distribution Determines where these trips will go (Zone-to-zone trip distribution)

Modal split Predicts how the trips will be divided among the available modes of travel.

Traffic assignment Predicts the routes that the trips will take resulting in traffic forecast
for the highway system and ridership forecasts for the transit system.

The modelling part is constrained by the available resources such as time, money and manpower.
For example, data collection part may involve huge money and manpower. Also, the resources
limit the number of alternatives to be analyzed. If only limited resources are available, it is not
possible to propose more number of alternatives. At the end of the modelling step it is essential
to check whether the outcomes of the model, i.e., proposed transport infrastructure alternatives
meet the criteria/standard proposed earlier. After modeling, next step is to analyze the impacts
such as environmental, social, etc. of the various transport infrastructure alternatives. Next step
of economic evaluation of transport plans involves comparing different transport alternatives and
selecting the most economic one. After implementation, it is essential to periodically monitor the
system to check whether it really offers benefit to the users. Else, it is essential to reexamine the
goals and objectives.

Landuse transportation cycle

There is a cyclic interaction between landuse and traffic as shown blow. Suppose if there is a
greater traffic need/demand at a particular locality, a transportation facility is being added.
Because of the increased accessibility of the new link, the land value adjacent to the newly added
transportation facility gets increased which will result in change in landuse in adjoining areas.
This will result in more number of trips produced or attracted (increased trip generation) and this
will result in increased traffic demand.

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Transportation Survey

The first stage in transportation planning process is to collect data on existing travel pattern,
existing transport facilities and existing landuse and economic activities.

Inventory of existing travel pattern

The data need to be collected are

Where and when trips begin and end

Socio-economic characteristics of trip maker, i.e., age, income, car ownership, etc.

Purpose of travel

Mode of travel

Before collecting the above data, it is essential to fix the study area.

Study area

Study area can be defines as the area within which trip patterns will be significantly affected by
the implementation of any resulting transport proposals. The boundary of the study area within
which travel Information is collected and modeled in considerable detail is called as External
Cordon Line

Guidelines for selecting external cordon line

1) Should include all areas that are already built-up and those areas which are likely to be
developed in future

2) Should contain all areas of systematic daily life of people oriented towards the city
centre.

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 3) Should be continuous and uniform in its course

4) Should be compatible with previous studies or studies planned for the future.

Zoning

After defining the study area, the next step is to divide the study area into smaller areas called
zones. The purpose of dividing into zones is to geographically associate the origins and
destinations of travel. In cities of large size, the study area will be divided into sectors first,
which are then subdivided into zones as shown in figure below. Zones are further subdivided into
sub-zones depending on the type of landuse

A convenient system is to divide the study area into sectors. The central sector (CBD) is
designated as 0 and the remaining sectors are numbered from 1 in a clockwise manner. Each
sector is further subdivided into zones and zones are further subdivided into subzones. So, a zone
366 represents, 3rd sector, 6th zone, 6th subzone.

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Points to keep in mind while dividing the study area into zones

1) The zones should have a homogeneous landuse so as to reflect accurately the associated
trip making behavior.

2) Anticipated changes in landuse should be considered while zoning.

3) The zones should not be too large (or) too small. As a general guide, a population of
1000-3000 may be optimum for small area. A population of 5000-10000 may be
optimum for large area. In residential area, a zone may accommodate roughly 1000
households.

4) It would be advantageous, if the subdivision closely follows that adopted by other bodies
like census department. This will facilitate correlation of data, i.e., population vs. trip
rates.

5) Natural or physical barriers such as rivers, canals, highway lines/railway lines can form
convenient zone boundaries.

General classification of trips w.r.t. origin and destination

A trip (basically a one way person movement) can be classified into following 4 types.

1). Internal to Internal (I-I): Origin within the external cordon and destination also within the
external cordon.

2). Internal to External (I-E) : Origin within the external cordon and destination outside the
external cordon.

3). External to External (E-E): Both origin and destination are outside the external cordon.

4). External to Internal (E-I): Origin outside the external cordon and destination within the
external cordon.

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The details of Internal to Internal (I-I) trips and Internal to external (I-E) trips can be collected by
a survey called Home interview technique.

Home interview technique

Home is the major source of trip generation and details of a considerable proportion of trips
generated in an urban area may be obtained from this survey. This technique involves visiting
some sample of households and collect data on Household information and Journey or trip
information.

1). Household information: The details to be collected are, address of the household, size of the
household, age of all members, sex, structure of the household, earning members, occupation,
place of work, no. of vehicles owned, household income.

2). Journey or trip information: Under this, information on trips made during the previous 24 hrs.
period are collected. The details need to be collected are origin and destination of trips, purpose
of trip, mode(s) of travel, time at start of trip, time at finish of trip.

Generally it is not possible to visit each and every household in a city or town. Only sample of
households are selected for this survey. The sample size is based on the population of the study
area. The recommended sample sizes for different population ranges are shown below.

Types of home interview survey

1) Full interview technique

2) Home questionnaire technique

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 3) Telephone interview

4) Postal questionnaire survey

Full interview technique

Interviewing as many members of the household as possible and directly recording the
information

Only 8 household/day/interviewer

More expensive but yield very accurate data

Home questionnaire technique

Interviewer collects only details of household characteristics, leaving forms for

household residents to complete in regard to travel information

The completed forms will be collected after 1 or 2 days

Less expensive (20 households/day/interviewer)

May not be accurate

Telephone interview

Questionnaire are sent out by post before the survey date and the replies are obtained
over phone

Response may not be good but less expensive

Postal questionnaire survey

Questionnaire are sent out by post and the households are requested to send their replies
by post in reply-paid envelopes

Response may not be good but less expensive

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Road side interview technique

Also known as cordon survey, because this survey is carried out at selected points along the
boundary of the study area to obtain the information about E-I and E-E travel pattern. A typical
setup of this survey is shown below.

Data sheet for road side interview

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Types of road side interview

1) Direct interview

2) Post card questionnaire

3) Registration number plate survey

4) Tags on vehicles survey

Direct interview

Yields accurate and reliable data

Disadvantage is delay to vehicles

Post card questionnaire

Reply paid questionnaires are handed over to each of the drivers at survey points and
requesting them to complete the information and send it by post

Advantage No delay to vehicles

Disadvantage Poor response

Registration number plate survey

Involves noting down the registration numbers of vehicles entering and leaving at all
cordon points

By matching the registration numbers at the end of the day, one can identify the vehicle
movement.

Advantage Work does not interfere with vehicle movement; large sample size possible

Disadvantage Large number of observers are required (at each station, atleast 2
observers are needed)

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Tags on vehicles survey

At each cordon point, vehicles are stopped and a tag is affixed.

Tags for different stations have different shapes/color to identify the station

Vehicles are stopped again at the exit points, where the tags are removed.

Time of entry and exit can be marked on the tag.

Inventory of existing transport facilities

To identify the deficiencies in the present transportation system and the extent to which they can
be improved.

1) Inventory of streets forming the transport network

Classification of street
Length,
Type and condition of road surface,
Capacity,
Intersection control devices, etc.

2). Inventory of public transport buses

Total number of buses,
Capacity,
Schedules,
Routes,
operating speeds,
Terminal details,
No. of passengers carried, etc.

3). Inventory of rail transport facilities

Length,
Schedules,
Operating speeds,
Stations,
No. of passengers carried, etc.

4). Parking inventory

On-street and off-street parking facilities

Parking demand

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5). Accident data
Accident history from traffic police dept
Identification of hotspots

6). Traffic volume, composition, peak vs. off-peak

7). Studies on travel time by different modes in important corridors

Inventory of existing landuse and economic activities

The various details that are needs to be collected are,

Master plan of the study area

Population in various zones
Employment statistics
Housing statistics
Income statistics
Vehicle growth in past years

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 CLE 3008 Transport Planning and Management

Unit 3 Trip Generation

Dr. S. Vasantha Kumar, Associate Professor, SCALE, VIT University

Email: svasanthakumar@vit.ac.in, Ph: 9444050435

Definition for Trip

A trip is a one-way person movement by a particular mode of transport, having 2 trip ends, an
origin (start of a trip) and a destination (end of the trip).

For the example as shown above, there are 4 trips totally. For the 1st trip, the two trip ends are:
one in zone 1 and other in zone 2. Origin of the 1st trip is at home and destination is at
workplace.

Classification of trips

Trips can be classified into 2 types, namely, home based trips and non-home based trips.

Home based trips: One end of the trip (either origin or destination) at the home of the person
making the trip.

Non-home based trips: Neither end at the home of the person making the trip.

For the example shown before, the first 2 trips are home based trips and the next two trips are
non-home based trips as shown below.

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Production and Attraction

The origin and destination are defined w.r.t. direction of trips, whereas production and attraction
are defined in terms of landuse associated with each trip end. The definition for production and
attraction differs for Home based trips (HB) and Non-home based trips (NHB)

Production and attraction for HB trips

If a trip end is connected with a residential landuse zone, then that residential zone has produced
one trip. If a trip end is connected with a non-residential landuse zone, then that zone has
attracted one trip. For the example shown below, Zone-1 has produced 2 trips, whereas zone-2
has attracted 2 trips.

Production and attraction for NHB trips

If a trip end is connected with a zone where the trip is originated (not w.r.t direction of travel),
then that zone has produced one trip. If a trip end is connected with a zone where the trip is
destined, then that zone has attracted one trip. For the example shown below, zone-2 has
produced 2 trips, whereas zone-3 has attracted 2 trips.

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P1). A weekday trip generation for a typical traveler (collected from home interview survey) is
shown below. Calculate the zone-wise productions and attractions.

8 am : Leave for work in zone-2 from home in zone-1

1 pm : Leave work for lunch

2 pm : Leave restaurant in zone-3 to return to work

5 pm : Leave work to return home

7 pm : Leave home to shop in zone-4

8 pm : Leave shopping centre to return home

9 pm : Leave home to theater for a movie in zone-5

12 midnight : Leave theater to return home

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Factors governing trip production and attraction

Income

Family income which represents the ability to pay for a given journey affects the
number of trips generated by a household

Higher the income, higher the trip generation rate

Car ownership

Car represents easy mobility; Hence a car owning household will generate more
trips than a non-car owning household

More cars in a household, more the no. of trips

Family size and composition

Bigger the family more trips are likely to be generated

Composition

Age

Occupation (business vs. regular)

Landuse characteristics

Residential area with high density of dwellings

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 Commercial/Industrial/Shopping area with high floor space, high employment
opportunities, school/colleges enrollment, social/religious activities, level of
entertainment

Distance of the town from the town centre

Accessibility to public transport system and its efficiency

Trip purpose

Work (employment)

Educational (school/colleges)

Shopping

Personal business (going to bank, doctors consultation)

Work related business (salesman/courier man)

Social (visiting friends, attending marriages)

Recreational (cinemas, music concert)

Trip Generation Analysis

1) Determine productions and attractions of each zones using the data collected from home
interview survey.

2) Establish a relationship

3) Using the predicted values of independent variables, you can forecast the number of trips
produced or attracted in each zone in the target year using the model developed in step-2.

2 approaches are available for the development of relationship.

Aggregate approach - Each traffic zone is treated as one observation and the independent
variables were defined on a zonal basis.

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Disaggregate approach - Households having similar socio-economic characteristics is treated as
one observation.

Regression analysis

The general form of the regression equation is,

Yi = b0 + b1 X1 + b2 X2 +..+bn Xn

Where,

Yi = Dependent variable

X1, X2 . Xn = Independent variables

b0, b1 ... bn = Coefficients to be estimated

In trip generation analysis, the dependent variable is the number of trips produced or attracted
and the independent variables are the various measurable factors that influence trip generation.

P1). Develop a model for trip production using the following data

Solution:

X Y
( )
( ) 2 2 ( 2
() ()
)
( )

5 2 -2.6 -2 6.76 4 5.2 2.339 -1.661 2.758

6 4 -1.6 0 2.56 0 0 2.978 -1.022 1.044
8 3 0.4 -1 0.16 1 -0.4 4.256 0.256 0.065
9 5 1.4 1 1.96 1 1.4 4.895 0.895 0.801

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10 6 2.4 2 5.76 4 4.8 5.534 1.534 2.353

= = 0.856

= = 0.639
2

= 0.856 + 0.639

2
2
= = 0.702
2

P2). Develop a model for shopping trip production using the following data.

Average Average number of Average motor

Zone
household shopping trips produced vehicle ownership per
number
size (X1) per day per household (Y) household (X2)

1 4.5 2.6 0.8

2 4.9 2.7 0.9

3 5.5 3.2 1.2

4 5 3.4 1.1

5 4.6 3.0 0.8

6 5.5 3.1 1.2

Solution:

1 2 (1 (2 12 22 ( 1 2 1 2 ( 2
1 2
)
)2
(1 ) (2 ) () 2

4.5 0.8 2.6 -0.5 -0.2 0.25 0.04 -0.4 0.2 0.08 0.1 2.832 0.0282 0.16
4.9 0.9 2.7 -0.1 -0.1 0.01 0.01 -0.3 0.03 0.03 0.01 2.765 0.0552 0.09
5.5 1.2 3.2 0.5 0.2 0.25 0.04 0.2 0.1 0.04 0.1 3.165 0.0272 0.04
5 1.1 3.4 0 0.1 0 0.01 0.4 0 0.04 0 3.332 0.1104 0.16
4.6 0.8 3.0 -0.4 -0.2 0.16 0.04 0 0 0 0.08 2.732 0.0718 0
5.5 1.2 3.1 0.5 0.2 0.25 0.04 0.1 0.05 0.02 0.1 3.165 0.0272 0.01

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 = 1
1 2
2 = 4.666

( 22 )( 1 ) ( 1 2 )( 2 )
1 = = 1
( 12 )( 22 ) ( 1 2 )2

( 12 )( 2 ) ( 1 2 )( 1 )
2 = = 3.333
( 12 )( 22 ) ( 1 2 )2

= 4.666 1 + 3.3332

2
2
= = 0.695
2

P3). A model for social/recreational trip production is developed using data collected during a
major holiday as

Y=0.04+0.018 X1+0.009 X2+0.16 X3

Where,

Y=No. of social/recreational trips per household

X1=Household size

X2=Annual household income in thousands of dollars

X3=Number of non working household members

A particular household has six members with an annual average income of $ 50000 and has one
working member. How many social/recreational trips are produced by this household?

Solution:

Y=0.04+0.018 (6)+0.009 (50)+0.16 (5) = 1.398

P4). Using the regression model given in the previous problem, determine the total number of
shopping/recreational trips produced by a neighborhood of 700 households that can be
categorized into 4 types with each type having characteristics as follows.

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Solution:

Type1: Y1=[0.04+0.018 (2)+0.009 (40)+0.16 (1)]*100 = 59.6 trips

Type2: Y2=[0.04+0.018 (3)+0.009 (50)+0.16 (2)]*200 = 172.8 trips

Type3: Y3=[0.04+0.018 (3)+0.009 (55)+0.16 (1)]*350 = 262.15 trips

Type4: Y1=[0.04+0.018 (4)+0.009 (40)+0.16 (3)]*50 = 47.6 trips

So, total = 542 trips.

Advantages of the aggregate approach using regression analysis

1). Easy to obtain the forecasted values such as zonal population, zonal average income, zonal
average vehicle ownership from different government agencies.

2). Regression analysis can easily be performed using MS Excel or any relevant software
packages

3). Most widely used and accepted procedure for performing T/G analysis

Disadvantages of the aggregate approach

1). Use of zonal averages tend to mask internal variations between households in a zone.

2). In the process of making zones as small as possible to make them truly homogeneous, the
planner increases the complexity of T/G analysis.

3). The regression analysis is based on the premise that the regression coefficients initially
established will remain unchanged in the future also, which may not be true always.

4). Sometimes high correlations among the independent variables may exist.

Disaggregate approach using Category analysis

P1). 20 households in a city were sampled for household income, vehicles per household and
trips produced in a day and the details are given below. Develop matrices connecting income to

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automobiles available and find how many trips with a household with an income of $10000
owning one vehicle make per day ?

Solution:

1). Develop a matrix connecting income to automobiles

Income (thousands of Vehicles available

dollars) 0 1 2 or more
<=6 1,2 5
>6 & <=9 8 9 13
>9 & <=12 4 7,18 14,15
>12 & <=15 19,20 16,17
>15 11,12 3,6,10
2). Next step is to calculate the avg. number of trips corresponding to each cell

Income (thousands of Vehicles available

dollars) 0 1 2 or more
<=6 3 5
>6 & <=9 4 6 9
>9 & <=12 5 7.5 10.5
>12 & <=15 8.5 11.5
>15 8.5 12.666

A household with an income of $10000 owning one vehicle make per day will make 7 trips/day.

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P2). Using the data given below, calculate the total number of trips generated by 100 households
within the zone.

Solution:

= (4*1.04)+(23*1.85)+(2*2.15)+.+(1*5.2)+(4*6.4) = 340.45 trips

Advantages of category analysis

Computations are relatively simpler

Ease of understanding by decision makers and the public

Applications at different study levels is possible: district, zonal, regional.

Easy transferability of analysis between cities of the same size and character.

Census data can be used extensively in these analysis particularly the socio-economic
data

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Disadvantages of category analysis

The technique mainly makes use of studies is the past made elsewhere.

With more household types, larger sample sizes are needed for analysis.

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