Chapter 1

Introducing TransCAD

Welcome to TransCAD, a revolutionary system for transportation data management and analysis.
TransCAD lets you store, retrieve, analyze, and visualize all types of transportation and related
geographic data in new and useful ways.
TransCAD combines a unique set of capabilities for digital mapping, geographic database
management, and presentation graphics with tools to apply sophisticated transportation, operations
research, and statistical models.
TransCAD is designed to aid transportation professionals in their daily work, and to provide
transportation organizations with a strategic data management tool. It has applications for
all types of transportation data and for all modes of transportation, and is ideal for building
transportation information and decision support systems.
TransCAD has five major components:

• The most powerful geographic information system (GIS) available today in the Windows
operating environment

• An extended data model that provides essential tools for transportation data display and
manipulation

• The largest collection of transportation analysis procedures ever assembled in one software
package

• Broad and comprehensive sets of transportation, geographic, and demographic data

• A powerful development language for creating macros, add-ins, server applications, and
custom front-ends

The TransCAD GIS

TransCAD is a full-featured geographic information system designed specifically for planning,
managing, and analyzing the characteristics of transportation systems and facilities. TransCAD
provides all the tools you need to create and edit maps and geographic data sets, produce
thematic maps and other graphic output, and perform spatial and geographical analyses.
TransCAD incorporates numerous technical advances in geographic data management, display,
and analysis. TransCAD includes enhanced map generation tools such as MapWizard® automated
thematic maps, automatic map label placement, and fully scalable line and symbol libraries.
Advanced geoprocessing capabilities support spatial queries, polygon overlay, and multi-band

7
buffering. The TransCAD GIS manages geographic data at any spatial scale, and provides tools
for geographic aggregation that make it easy to integrate data from several different scales.
TransCAD stores spatial data in an efficient topological format that reduces storage requirements
and increases data integrity. Active Topology™ map editing ensures the connectivity of transportation
networks and provides an extremely efficient method for interactive geographic editing and
network development.
TransCAD also offers a compact, read-only geographic data format that provides rapid
access to large geographic databases. This format is ideal for publication of geographic data
sets. Both formats support seamless geographic files and multi-user data access with no practical
size restrictions.
TransCAD interoperates with other GIS and database systems and can be used in conjunction
with many other popular software packages.

Extended Data Model

Vector GIS systems were originally developed to support environmental and land information
applications. As such, they focused on providing capabilities for polygon processing. Transportation
applications of GIS, however, require more complex data structures. TransCAD has an extended
data model that includes the following:

• Storage of information on the allowable direction of flow on each link, to facilitate identification
and analysis of networks containing one-way links

• Non-topological geographic data extensions, to represent features such as underpasses and

overpasses

• Storage of data on delays and restrictions for turn movements at intersections, to provide
more realistic network representations

• Route system layers that maintain routes as collections of geographic features, to facilitate
route definition and network development, enhance the quality of route displays, and
provide for storage of route-based tabular data

• Tools for maintaining, displaying, and performing spatial queries on linearly-referenced

attribute data, including comprehensive dynamic segmentation functions

• Storage and manipulation of data in matrix form, including flow matrices, travel time
matrices, and cost matrices

TransCAD lets you manipulate these data types in conjunction with the more traditional
GIS entities in a natural, convenient, and powerful manner. TransCAD also makes it easy to
use legacy and enterprise data because TransCAD directly supports a wide range of geographic
and tabular file formats. Geographic formats include ESRI Shapefile and Personal Geodatabase,
MapInfo TAB, Oracle Spatial, and any ODBCtable with a coordinate. Tabular formats include
Access, Oracle table, ODBC table, and ODBC SQL query.

Transportation Analysis and Modeling

The complete TransCAD package includes a core set of transportation network analysis, travel
demand modeling, and operations research models, a set of advanced analytical models for
specific applications, and a set of supporting tools for statistical and econometric analysis.
8
These procedures can be used individually or in combination to solve problems you face in your
work. This modular approach gives you great flexibility to address specific modeling and data
issues.
To appreciate the power of TransCAD, you must understand it as an integrated GIS and
transportation analysis tool. The GIS makes it possible to display and visualize both the inputs
to a particular model and the model outputs. This lets you evaluate the quality of the data and
the quality of the analysis in different ways. In addition, the GIS can be used to assemble and
prepare data for analysis in ways not possible with traditional transportation modeling software.
Because analytic methods are rapidly evolving in transportation and logistics, TransCAD
is continually augmented with new procedures and capabilities. TransCAD users, therefore,
receive periodic updates to the TransCAD models and procedures as they become available.
TransCAD procedures are intended for use by knowledgeable analysts. Users are urged
to consult the technical literature for relevant background information on model definitions,
solution methods, and appropriate applications. Technical references in this manual can guide
you to sources for this important background information.
The procedures that are provided with TransCAD are designed to solve many common
transportation and logistics problems. However, small deviations from the standard form of
these problems may require new or different solution methods. In many cases, Caliper or third
party developers have already developed appropriate procedures or can do so on a custom basis.
Please contact Caliper Corporation if you need information of this type.

Data
TransCAD includes an extensive library of geographic, demographic, and transportation data
that help you get your projects started quickly. Data provided with TransCAD include:

• Detailed street files for the entire U.S.

• National highway, rail, and waterway networks

• Boundaries for census tracts, ZIP Codes®, states, counties, Bureau of Economic Analysis
(BEA) areas, transportation analysis zones (TAZs), and more

• Hundreds of data items from the Census of Population and Housing, including those most
useful for transportation analysis

TransCAD provides comprehensive tools for creating, editing, importing, and exporting
geographic data. TransCAD can import virtually all U.S. Census transportation data products,
including TIGER/Line® files, Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) data files, and
Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data. TransCAD also provides access to data published
by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA), and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
TransCAD has an open systems architecture with extensive support for data exchange. This
lets you import data from and export data to most popular DBMS, CAD, and GIS software
packages. TransCAD also lets you directly use ESRI Shapefiles and Personal Geodatabases,
MapInfo TAB files, Oracle Spatial tables, and any ODBC table with a coordinate as a map
layer.

9
Custom Application Development
TransCAD includes the Geographic Information System Developer’s Kit (GISDK™). GISDK
gives you the tools that you need to create a wide variety of products for delivering mapping
and geographic analysis capabilities to your customers. Almost 800 functions can be called
from Caliper Script, a complete programming language for designing menus and dialog boxes
(including toolbars and toolboxes) and for writing macros. The Caliper Script code is stored in
resource files that you can edit with your favorite text editor. With GISDK you can:

• Create add-ins or macros that extend the capabilities of TransCAD or that automate
repeated operations. Add-ins can be freely distributed to any TransCAD user without
restriction.

• Build custom applications that focus the user on the capabilities needed for a particular
purpose by extending or replacing the standard TransCAD interface. You design the
menus, toolbars, toolboxes and dialog boxes, and program the application to respond to
user actions in any way you want.

• Access TransCAD from .NET to integrate it into a .NET application or access TransCAD
as a COM Object to add maps or analysis functions to your own programs. The .NET
classes included with TransCAD allow you to access the GISDK environment from a
Windows desktop application (Windows Forms) written in any .NET language such as
C#, Python, Visual Basic, etc. GISDK also allows you to call GISDK functions and
macros from another application using COM. TransCAD can provide map, data, and
geographic analysis services when accessed as a COM Object. You write your application
in a programming language that can make COM calls, and when you need map services
you call the TransCAD object to supply those services.

For web applications, TransCAD for the Web provides an easy and cost-effective solution.
For more information, visit WWW.CALIPER.COM or contact Caliper sales at 617-527-4700.

TransCAD Basics
TransCAD combines many components into one package:

• A complete geographic information system that lets you analyze and map transportation
systems at the neighborhood, city, state, national, or worldwide scale

• A collection of capabilities for displaying, editing, and analyzing your own data

• Instruments for linking the build-in information to your own data

• An assortment of tools for analyzing, interpreting, and making effective transportation

graphics and presentations using maps

Let’s take a look at how TransCAD takes all of these components and organizes them for
you.

10
The TransCAD Screen
The TransCAD screen resembles many other Windows applications. You use TransCAD by
choosing commands from the menus or by using command buttons and tools in a toolbar.
Toolbars can be either docked or floating. You can also click the right mouse button to choose
from context-sensitive menus. When you choose some commands from the menu, TransCAD
displays a dialog box to ask you for additional information about what you would like to do.
TransCAD dialog boxes work exactly like those in any other Windows application.

The analysis procedures in TransCAD are grouped into several different menus:
Networks/Paths, Planning, Route Systems, and so on. These menus are displayed only when
you need them. To turn on one of these menus, choose the class of procedures you are interested
in from the Procedure menu. For example, choose Procedures>Statistics to activate the
Statistics menu, which contains TransCAD procedures for statistical analysis and modeling.
Depending on the resolution of your screen, some of the tools in the toolbars may not be
visible. If this occurs, you can either use the corresponding menu commands, or change your
Windows setup to increase your screen resolution.

Maps, Dataviews, Matrices, Figures, and Layouts

TransCAD displays information on your computer screen in five types of windows: maps,
dataviews, matrix views, figures, and layouts. Each one is displayed in a separate window
on your screen, and each one can be saved for future use in files stored on your computer’s hard
disk. You can create any number of maps, dataviews, matrix views, figures, and layouts.
Maps show geographic features and their characteristics in an electronic version of a paper
map. Choose the features you want to see and how you would like to see them, and TransCAD
creates a map from its vast collection of geographic data or from your own data. When a map
is the active window it is the current map.
Dataviews display information from geographic files, databases, or spreadsheets in tabular
format. In a dataview you can display and edit data, create and print reports, and customize the
way the data are displayed. You can also use dataviews to link your own personal or corporate
data to features on a map.
11
 Matrix views are used to display transportation data, multiple shortest paths, spatial adjacency,
cross-tabulation results, and other data that are stored in matrices. You can create, edit,
manipulate, and combine matrices to support analytical applications.
Figures show tabular data in forms such as prism and 3D maps and as charts, including pie
charts, bar charts, area charts, line charts, and scatter plots. You create figures from maps,
dataviews, and matrix views and then customize them to show the data the way you want.
Layouts bring together any number of maps, dataviews, matrix views, and figures in a single
presentation and allow you to add freehand text, drawings, your company logo, and more. You
can use layouts to make wall-sized maps or to produce maps in a standard format for reports.

Workspaces
Often you will have several windows of different types open on your screen. You can save all
your open winders in a single step using a workspace. When you save a workspace, TransCAD
puts information about all of your maps, dataviews, matrix views, figures, and layouts into a
single file. When you open this file later on, TransCAD restores all of the windows.

12
Layers

Maps are composed of many different layers of

information. For example, this sample road
map of Perth, Australia contains water areas,
reserves, settlements, postal areas, streets, and
railroads.
TransCAD organizes all of the features in a map
into layers. When you create or work with a
map, you choose the layers you want to see and
decide how each layer should look.

Labels

TransCAD lets you label each feature on a map

with its name or any other attribute.
TransCAD lets you choose label position, size,
color, style, and priority. In addition, you can
move individual labels to suit your needs, use
callouts, and rotate labels.

Map Scale and Location

While a paper map shows a fixed geographic region, TransCAD lets you move around the map
from place to place, zooming in as you like, to see more and more geographic detail. You can
use autoscaling so that layers appear automatically as you zoom in.
If you often want to look at particular map locations, you can save those locations by creating
a bookmark. You can quickly zoom to the location of a bookmark from any map, or create a
map based on a bookmark by using the Map Librarian. You can also use a Map Locator to
show the location of a map and move the map to a new location.

13
Themes
A theme is a way to illustrate the data that go with a map layer. TransCAD lets you create
many types of themes that use color, patterns, charts, and symbols to make informative maps.
When you create a theme, you choose the data you want to use and the type of theme you want.
You let MapWizard®automatic mapping do the rest, or customize the theme settings to make
your map look exactly the way you want.

Networks

Networks are used by TransCAD to find

routes, calculate distances and travel times,
and support many other analysis and modeling
applications. You can create networks from
road, rail, waterway, or other line layers.

Routes and Route Systems

Routes are a special type of geographic feature

that represent the paths followed by vehicles,
goods, or individuals. There is an extensive
set of tools for editing, displaying, querying,
and performing geographic analysis on route
systems. Routes and route systems are
also often automatically produced by various
analytical functions in TransCAD.

14
Matrices
TransCAD uses matrices to store data on
transportation flows, travel times, distances,
and crosstabulation results. TransCAD
matrices are an extremely efficient way of
storing transportation data that do not fit
well into databases or spreadsheets. You can
create, edit, manipulate, and combine matrices
in many different ways to support analytical
applications. Matrices are displayed in matrix
views.

Procedures
TransCAD includes a broad and diverse set of transportation network models and other analytic
tools for transportation planning, vehicle routing, site location, and distribution logistics. These
tools are known as procedures. Procedures are grouped into several different menus, which
can be displayed or hidden by choosing commands on the Procedure menu. For example, choose
Procedures > Statistics to activate the Statistics menu, which contains TransCAD procedures
for statistical analysis and modeling. The Logging tab of the Edit > Preferences command
controls the types of reports and messages that are produced by the procedures.

15
Chapter 2

Quick Start Tutorial

Now that you have learned some of the basics, let’s work through a few sample projects that will
give you some hands-on experience in creating maps and doing analysis in TransCAD. In this
chapter you will complete three projects that are based on a hypothetical city called Flintbury,
USA. In the process of stepping through these projects, you’ll get a chance to practice using
some of the most important features of TransCAD.

Project 1: The Travel Patterns in Flintbury

As the first project, we’re going to use TransCAD to make, save, and print a map of Flintbury
that displays mode share and traffic volumes. We’ll do this project in two stages. First, we’ll
create an overview map of the city. Then we’ll add the mode share and traffic volume data.

Creating an Overview Map

To Start
1. If you haven’t already done so, start TransCAD by clicking the Start button and choosing
TransCAD from the Program menu.

To Create the Overview Map

1. Choose File > Open or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose Geographic File from the Files of Type drop-down list.

3. Choose the Tutorial folder from the Look In drop-down list.

4. Choose the file FL ZONE.CDF.

5. Click Open.

TransCAD creates a new map showing the zones of Flintbury. As you just saw, you create
a new map simply by opening a geographic file.

16
To Label the Zones

1. Click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose the field ZONE from the first drop-down list.
3. Choose 16 as the size of the labels.
4. Choose a dark red color.

5. Click OK.

TransCAD draws the map again, this time displaying the identification number of each zone.

To Add a Street Layer to the Map

1. Choose Map > Layers or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Click the Add Layer button.
3. Choose the geographic file FL ST.CDF from the Tutorial folder and click Open. TransCAD
adds Flintbury Nodes and Flintbury Streets to the list of layers.

4. Click the Close button.

TransCAD adds the Flintbury streets to the map. The Flintbury Node layer is hidden.
A map can contain any number of layers. You use the Layers dialog box to add layers to or
remove layers from the map, control the order in which they draw, and change the way they are
displayed.
17
 At the moment, the zone boundaries are not very visible. You can fix that by changing the
style of the zone layer. Style refers to the colors, patterns, and sizes that are used to display
features in a layer on the map.

To Change the Zone Style

1. Choose Flintbury Zones from the drop-down list of layers on the Standard toolbar.

2. Click on the Standard toolbar.

3. Choose a dashed line from the Border Style drop-down list.

4. Choose 1.5 from the Border Width drop-down list.

5. Choose the black color at the very top of the Border Color drop-down list.

6. Click OK.

TransCAD draws the map again. This time, the zones stand out more clearly. Let’s now
add a title to the map.

To Add a Title to the Map

1. Click on the Drawing toolbar to activate the Freehand Text tool.

2. Drag a short, wide rectangle across the top of the page.

3. Type the title ”Flintbury” and press the Enter key.

The other drawing tools on the Drawing toolbar let you add circles , rectangles , rounded
rectangles , lines , curves , shapes , bitmaps , and symbols to your maps. Once
the title is entered, you may want to make it bigger or smaller, or move it. Here’s how:

18
To Move or Resize the Title

1. Click on the Drawing toolbar to activate the Pointer tool.

2. Click on the title. TransCAD draws handles at the corners.

3. To change the size of the title, drag one of the handles.

4. To move the title, press and hold the mouse button in the center of the title, and drag the
title to a new location.

5. To remove the handles, click somewhere else on the map. As with most computer programs,
it is wise to save your work as you go along.

To Save Your Work

1. Choose File > Save or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose the Tutorial folder.

3. Type Flintbury as the map file name.

4. Click Save.

TransCAD saves the map to a file on disk. Your map should look something like this:

We’ve finished the overview map of Flintbury. Let’s move on to Stage 2.

19
Stage 2: Displaying Data on the Map
Now let’s look at data on commuter travel in Flintbury, and see how you can use it to make the
map a little more interesting. The Flintbury Zone layer contains data on each of the zones in
Flintbury.

To View the Data Stored in the Flintbury Zone Layer

1. Verify that Flintbury Zones is displayed in the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar.

2. Click on the Standard toolbar.

TransCAD displays the data stored in the Flintbury Zone layer in a dataview. Each row in
the dataview contains data on one of the Flintbury zones. Take a moment to browse through
the zone data using the scroll bars and the arrow keys on your keyboard. Make sure you note
the column TRANSIT SHARE. You will use this field in a moment.
Now let’s use these data to color code the map.

To Illustrate the Transit Mode Share Throughout Flintbury

1. Choose File > Close to close the Flintbury Zones dataview.

2. Verify that Flintbury Zones is displayed in the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar.

3. Choose Map > Thematic Mapping > Color or click on the Standard toolbar.

4. Choose TRANSIT SHARE from the Field drop-down list. TransCAD fills in all other
settings automatically.

20
 5. Click OK.

TransCAD looks over the transit share information, and draws a map that uses a color
theme to illustrate different values of transit share. TransCAD also displays a legend showing
the transit shares that are indicated by different colors.
When you create a color theme, you can choose the colors to use, the number of categories
you want, and many other settings.
You also want to display information about the level of traffic on each street in Flintbury.
To do this, you will use data that is stored in a fixed-format binary file called FL STDAT.BIN.

To Open the Street Info File

1. Choose File > Open or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose Fixed-format Binary from the Files of Type drop-down list.
3. Choose the file FL STDAT.BIN from the Tutorial folder.

4. Click Open.
21
 TransCAD displays the file in a dataview. Each row in the dataview corresponds to a segment
of a street in Flintbury, and each column contains a different piece of information about the
segment.

As you just saw, you can create a new dataview by opening a table. The table can be stored
in Access, dBASE, Excel, any ODBC compliant data source such as Oracle or SQL Server, and
many other formats.
To enhance the map with the data contained in FL STDAT.BIN, you need to match the
streets on the map with their respective rows in the dataview. You will join the street layer to
the street data file by matching the street IDs, which appear in both places. Here’s how you do
it.

To Join the Street Layer to the Street Data File

1. Choose Window > Map1-Flintbury to make the Flintbury map the active window.

2. Choose Flintbury Streets from the drop-down list of layers on the Standard toolbar.

3. Choose Dataview > Table > Join or click on the Standard toolbar to display the
Join dialog box.

4. Choose Flintbury Streets from the first Table drop-down list.

5. Verify that FL STDAT is displayed in the second Table drop-down list.

6. Verify that [STREET ID] is displayed in the second Field drop-down list.

7. Click OK.

22
TransCAD creates a new dataview called Flintbury Streets+FL STDAT. This dataview has
one record for each street segment, and shows the data associated with each street.
Now let’s use the information contained in the [EST VOLUME] field to show the estimated
volume on Flintbury streets.

To Show the Traffic Flow on the Map

1. Choose Window > Flintbury.map to make the map of Flintbury the active window.

2. Verify that Flintbury Streets is displayed in the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar.

3. Choose Map > Thematic Mapping > Size or click on the Standard toolbar.

4. Choose [EST VOLUME] from the Field drop-down list.

5. Click OK.
TransCAD draws a map in which the width of each street is proportional to its flow.
TransCAD also adds this information to the legend. You can adjust how wide the
scaled-symbol theme is to make the map a little more legible at this scale.

6. Choose Map > Thematic Mapping > Size or click on the Standard toolbar.

7. Change the high value size to 10 and click OK.

Your map should look something like this:

23
 Let’s save the map. You will save this map under a different name, so that you don’t
overwrite Flintbury.map, which you saved earlier.

To Save Your Work

1. Choose File > Save As.
2. Choose the Tutorial folder on your hard disk.
3. Type Flintbury Traffic for the map file name.
4. Click Save.

TransCAD saves the map to a file on disk.

There’s only one more thing to do to complete the project.

To Print the Map

1. Choose File > Print or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. If you have a color printer, choose it from the Printer Name drop-down list, otherwise,
select any convenient printer.
3. Check the Use Actual Point Sizes box.
4. Click OK.

TransCAD prints the map, and we’re done with the first project. Let’s close the map and
dataviews before beginning the second project.

To Close the Map and Dataviews

1. Choose File > Close All .
24
Project 2: Flintbury’s Bus System
In the second project, we’re going to do some analysis of Flintbury’s bus service. In particular,
you are going to investigate the accessibility of the bus system and the characteristics of the
people who ride the buses.
We’ll do this project in three stages:

• Create a map showing Flintbury’s bus routes with bands of various distances around the
routes

• Use a bus survey to obtain information on the riders

• Create and print a layout summarizing your results

Stage 1: Making a Map of the Bus Routes

For the first project, you created an overview map of Flintbury showing zones and streets. You
are going to use this map as a starting point for the bus route map.

To Open a Map

1. Choose File > Open or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose the file Flintbury.map in the Tutorial folder.

3. Click Open.

TransCAD opens the map and displays it in a new window.

You happen to have a file containing a route system layer for the Flintbury Bus System,
which will be helpful in the analysis.

To Add a Route System File to the Map

1. Choose Map > Layers or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Click the Add Layer button.

3. Choose Route System from the Files of Type drop-down list.

4. Choose the file FL BUS.RTS from the Tutorial folder and click Open. TransCAD adds
FRTC Bus Routes to the list of layers.

25
 5. Click the Close button in the Layers dialog box.

TransCAD adds the Flintbury bus layer to the map. Routes are very much like other layers.
You can control the colors, line styles, and line widths with which they are displayed, and you
can use labeling and themes to illustrate the characteristics of routes.
Let’s zoom in to the area around the bus routes.

To Use the Zoom Tool

1. Click on the Tools toolbar to activate the Zoom In tool.

2. Drag a rectangle around the bus routes.

TransCAD expands the contents of the rectangle so that it fills the map window. If you are
not satisfied with the area that is now shown in the map, Choose Map-Previous Scale and try
again.
Now that you can clearly see the routes, let’s create buffers of different sizes around the
routes to show the accessibility of the bus system.

To Create Buffers Around the Bus Routes

1. Choose FRTC Bus Routes from the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose Tools > Analysis > Buffers or click on the Standard toolbar to display the
Buffers dialog box.

3. Type “Service Areas” in the Create Layer text box.

4. Click on the Fixed Sizes radio button and type 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 in the Sizes text box.

26
 5. Click OK. TransCAD displays the Save As dialog box.

6. Choose the Tutorial folder on your hard disk.

7. Type “MY BUFFERS” as the file name and click Save.

TransCAD creates a new layer named Service Areas and adds it to the map, showing the
gaps in the bus system service areas.
Something we’re interested in knowing is the population within each of the buffers. You can
quickly calculate this information by using the Overlay feature.

To Build Overlays
1. Choose Service Areas from the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose Tools > Analysis > Overlay to display the Overlay dialog box.

3. Choose Flintbury Zones from the Layer drop-down list and remove the check from the
Count the Number of Features and Create a Report boxes.

27
 4. Click OK. TransCAD displays the Save As dialog box.

5. Choose the Tutorial folder on your hard disk.

6. Type “MY ACCESS” as the file name and click Save.

TransCAD computes the attributes of the buffers based on the amount of overlay that exists
between the buffers and the zones, then displays the results in a dataview. Scroll to the right
to view the POPULATION field, which contains the population that lives within each of the
buffers.

Stage 2: Finding Out about the Passengers

You now have a great map and some statistics on accessibility, but you still don’t know much
about the riders. You will use the results of a major survey of Flintbury bus riders to find out
more about the passengers. The survey results are in a dBASE file called FL BSURV.DBF.

To Open a Survey File

1. Choose File-Open or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose dBASE file from the Files of Type drop-down list.

3. Select the file FL BSURV.DBF from the Tutorial folder.

4. Click Open.

TransCAD displays the file in a dataview. Each row in the dataview corresponds to a survey
response form filled out by a rider.
The survey file contains information on the home addresses of each of the respondents, so
let’s put these addresses on the map.

To Locate by Address
1. Choose Tools > Locate > Locate by Address to display the Locate by Address dialog
box.

28
 If you have not configured a region file, configure the Choose Street Layer or Location Index
dialog box by clicking on the button next to the Streets/Index drop down list. Choose
the FL ST.CDF layer from the Streets/Index drop-down list, USA Addresses from the
Address Format drop-down list, and USA, Canada, and Mexico from the City Format
drop-down list. Click OK to return to the Locate by Address dialog box.

2. Type “Survey Respondents” in the Name text box and verify that TransCAD has found
the ADDRESS and ZIP data fields it needs to locate the features.

3. Click OK. TransCAD displays the Save As dialog box.

4. Choose the Tutorial folder on your hard disk, type “MY RIDERS” as the name for the
new geographic file, and click Save.
TransCAD creates a new point layer containing one point for each survey respondent,
and adds that layer to the map. TransCAD also creates a dataview that contains the
longitude and latitude of each rider’s home and the survey information on the rider. All
of the information in this dataview is stored in the new geographic file MY RIDERS that
you just created. It also displays a brief report showing how many riders were located
successfully.

29
 5. Click OK to close the report.

The new map shows that most of the bus riders live within the 0.75 mile band of the bus
routes. Now let’s change the style of the layer.

To Change the Style

1. Verify that Survey Respondents is displayed in the drop-down list on the toolbar.

2. Click on the Standard toolbar.

3. Change the size to 8.

4. Change the color to purple.

5. If you want, choose a different symbol from the icons scroll list on the left of the dialog
box.

6. Click OK

TransCAD draws the map again with the new style.

Tools > Locate > Locate by Address is one of several commands you can use to locate
your data. The Streets file that comes with TransCAD includes streets for the entire US, so
you can locate addresses across the nation in a single step. TransCAD can also locate your data
based on ZIP Code, or by almost any other field in your database.
Let’s now perform some statistics on the Survey respondents to get more information about
the riders.

30
To Compute Statistics
1. Choose Window > Dataview > Survey Respondents to view the dataview associated
with the Survey Respondents map layer.

2. Choose All Records from the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar to see the data for
all of the respondents.

3. Choose Dataview > Summary Statistics or click on the Standard toolbar.

TransCAD computes summary statistics for each of the survey fields, including sum, maximum,
minimum, and mean, and displays the results in a dataview.
The COUNT and SUM fields are not particularly interesting, so let’s hide them in the
dataview.

To Hide Columns in a Dataview

1. Click on any row in the column named COUNT, and drag over to the column named SUM
so that at least one cell in each column is highlighted.

2. Click the hide button on the Standard toolbar.

TransCAD hides the two columns.

Among all of the respondents, the mean number of vehicles is 1.77 and the mean travel time is
34 minutes.
Now we’re going to generate statistics for a particular set of respondents. We’ll first ask
TransCAD to find the riders who live within a quarter mile of the bus system. We’ll do this by
creating a selection set, which is simply a list of records in a single map layer or dataview.

To Select Features by Location

1. Click on the Survey Respondents dataview or choose Window > Dataview > Survey
Respondents to make the survey dataview the current view.

2. Choose Selection > Select by Location to display the Select by Location dialog box.

3. Choose FRTC Bus Routes from the first drop-down list.

4. Choose within as the selection option and type 0.25 as the distance.

5. Type “Within 0.25” in the Selection Set editable drop-down list.

31
 6. Click OK.

TransCAD creates a selection set called Within 0.25 that contains the features in the Survey
Respondents layer that are within 0.25 miles of the bus system.
Now let’s generate statistics on this selection set.

To Compute Statistics on a Selection Set

1. Choose Within 0.25 from the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar to show only those
records included in the Within 0.25 selection set.

2. Choose Dataview > Statistics or click on the Standard toolbar.

This time TransCAD computes the statistics using only those records contained in your
selection set. Note that the transit riders that live within 0.25 miles of the bus system
have a lower average car-ownership rate and have a lower average travel time.

3. Choose File > Close to close the dataview.

One interesting piece of survey data is the time that customers spend waiting for buses. Let’s
do a tabulation to show the number of respondents within certain ranges of wait time. You will
use the entire survey this time, since you don’t expect wait time to vary based on accessibility
to the buses.

To Produce a Tabulation of Wait Time

1. Click on the Survey Respondents dataview or choose Window > Dataview > Survey
Respondents to make the survey respondents dataview the active view.

2. If the Statistics menu is not showing, choose Procedures > Statistics to display the
Statistics menu.

3. Choose Statistics > Tabulations to display the Tabulations dialog box.

4. Choose WAIT TIME from the Field 1 drop-down list.

32
 5. Choose Equal Size Intervals as the method.

6. Click OK.

7. Choose the Tutorial folder on your hard disk, type “MY WAIT” as the name of the output
file, and click Save.
TransCAD creates a tabulation matrix that contains one row for each of ten ranges of wait
time and four columns (count, percent, cumulative count and cumulative percent), and
displays the matrix in a matrix view. Note that 66.84% of riders wait 11 minutes or less.
Dataview > Summary Statistics and Statistics > Tabulations are just two of the
numerous summary and analytical statistical tools that TransCAD provides.

Stage 3: Creating a Layout

You are going to arrange your map and dataview on one page, called a layout. A layout lets you
arrange any number of maps, dataviews, and matrices on a printed page, along with freehand
text and other items.

33
To Create a New Layout

1. Choose File > New or click on the Standard toolbar to display the New File dialog
box.

2. Choose Layout from the list of file types and click OK. TransCAD displays a new layout.

3. Choose File > Properties or click on the Standard toolbar to display the Layout
Properties dialog box. If you have a color printer, choose it from the Printer drop-down
list, otherwise, choose any convenient printer.

4. Choose Portrait from the orientation radio list.

5. Click OK.

TransCAD displays a blank layout page. Let’s drop in the map, dataview, and chart using
the Place tool.

To Place a Map in the Layout

1. Click on the Drawing toolbar or click to activate the Place tool.

2. Drag a rectangle across the top half of the page. TransCAD displays the Add to Layout
dialog box.

3. Click on the FLINTBURY map in the grid view.

4. Click OK.

TransCAD adds the map and the legend to the layout. Once the map is placed, you may
want to make it bigger or smaller, or change its location. You do this the same way that you
moved and resized the title on your first map.

To Move or Resize a Layout Item

1. Click on the Standard toolbar to activate the Pointer tool.

2. Click on the map. TransCAD draws handles at the corners.

3. To change the size of the map, drag one of the handles.

34
 4. To move the entire map, press and hold the mouse button near the center of the map, and
drag the map to a new location.
Use this method to place the legend over the lower-right corner of the map. Let’s add a title
to the layout.

To Add a Title to the Layout

1. Click on the Drawing toolbar to activate the Freehand Text tool.

2. Drag a short, wide rectangle at the top of the page.
3. Type the title “Flintbury Transit” and press the Enter key.
If the title is the wrong size or in the wrong place, select it with the Pointer tool and
resize it or move it. Let’s also add the summary statistics to the layout.

To Place the Statistics Dataview in the Layout

1. Click on the Tools toolbar to activate the Place tool.

2. Drag a rectangle below the map. TransCAD displays the Add to Layout dialog box.
3. Click on the Survey Respondents Statistics dataview in the scroll list.

4. Click OK
TransCAD draws the dataview in the layout. As with the map, you may move or resize the
dataview. When you have an arrangement that you like, it’s time to save the layout.

To Save the Layout

1. Choose File > Save or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose a directory on your hard disk.
3. Type the name “MY BUS” for the layout file.
4. Click Save.
You can use layouts to create printed output of any size, containing any combination of
maps, dataviews, matrices, figures, and freehand items.
Finally, let’s print the layout.
35
To print the Layout

1. Choose File > Print or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose the number of copies you want to print.

3. Click OK.

The second project is now complete. Before moving on to the third project, close all of the
open files by choosing File > Close All. Click No to All when TransCAD asks if you want
to save your changes.

Project 3: The Impact of Closing Streets for a Parade

In this final project, we’re going to do a quick analysis of the impact of closing down some
streets in downtown Flintbury for a parade. We’ll use the network, shortest path, and matrix
capabilities of TransCAD to compare the person-hours spent driving in Flintbury under normal
conditions with the person-hours spent driving with the parade route closed.

Stage 1: Preparing Inputs

Once again, you will start your analysis from a map you made earlier.

To Open a Map

1. Choose File > Open or click on the Standard toolbar.

2. Select the file Flintbury Traffic.map previously saved

3. Click OK.

TransCAD opens the Flintbury Traffic.map file and displays it in a new window. This map
is a little cluttered, so let’s clear the theme that is on the street layer before you proceed to the
analysis.

To Remove a Size Theme

1. Choose Flintbury Streets from the drop-down list of layers on the Standard toolbar.

2. Choose Map > Thematic Mapping > Size or click on the Standard toolbar.

3. Click Remove.

TransCAD redraws the map so that all of the streets are the same width. Now let’s take a
moment to look at the data associated with the Flintbury Street Layer.

36