Transportation Flashcards
METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION (MPO)
As a result of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 the then, Bureau of Public Roads (predecessor to the Federal Highway Administration) required the creation of planning agencies or organizational arrangements that would be capable of carrying out the required planning process.
Five Core Functions of an MPO
- establish a setting: establish and manage a fair and impartial setting for effective regional decision-making in the metropolitan urbanizing area (UZA)
- evaluate alternatives: evaluate transportation alternatives, scaled to the size and complexity of the region, to the nature of its transportation issues, and to the realistically available options
- maintain a regional metropolitan transportation plan (RTP or MTP): develop and update a fiscally constrained long-range transportation plan for the UZA covering a planning horizon of at least twenty years that fosters
o mobility and access for people and goods,
o efficient system performance and preservation, and
o quality of life - develop a transportation improvement program (TIP): develop a fiscally constrained program based on the long-range transportation plan and designed to serve the UZA’s goals while using spending, regulating, operating, management, and financial tools
- involve the public: involve the general public and all the significantly affected sub- groups in the four essential functions listed above.
If the metropolitan area is designated as an air quality non-attainment or maintenance area, then - protect air quality: transportation plans, programs, and projects must conform with the air quality plan, known as the “state implementation plan” (SIP), for the state within which the UZA lies.
Presently, most MPOs have no authority to raise revenues such as to levy taxes on their own, rather, they are designed to allow local officials to decide collaboratively how to spend available federal and other governmental transportation funds in their urbanized areas. The funding for the operations of an MPO comes from a combination of federal transportation funds and required matching funds from state and local government
Traffic analysis
the process of evaluating the effect of traffic demand and supply on the performance of a transportation facility in relation to meeting goals and objectives of the facility.
Travel demand model
the demand forecasting procedure for future year analysis and includes the design year, interim years, and opening year for traffic analysis. Traditionally, an approach known as the “four-step process” has been used for regional transportation planning analysis.
Travel demand model four basic phases
- Trip generation (the number of trips to be made);
- Trip distribution (where those trips go);
- Mode choice/split (how the trips will be divided among the available modes of travel); and
- Trip assignment (predicting the route trips will take).
Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs)
basic geographic unit for inventorying demographic data and land use within a study area. The zones represent the origins and destinations of travel activity within the region.
Road classification system
A. Principal Arterial (High Capacity Roadways that serve to carry longer-distance flows between important centers of activity)
i. Interstate
ii. Other freeways and
expressways
iii. Other
B. Minor Arterial
C. Collector (Low to Moderate Capacity Roadways)
i. Major collector
ii. Minor collector
D. Local (These roads have the lowest capacity and speed limit, and carry low volumes of traffic.)
Level of Service (LOS) and Multi-Modal Analysis
the speed, convenience, comfort and security of transportation facilities and services as experienced by users.
ratings, typically from A (best) to F (worst)
Parking Standardized uses are identified with recommended space provisions as listed in the table below.
Old Paradigm Parking
motorists should nearly always be able to easily find, convenient, free parking at every destination. Parking planning consists primarily of generous minimum parking requirements, with costs born indirectly, through taxes and building rents.
New paradigm Parking
parking facilities should be used efficiently, so parking lots at a particular destination may often fill (typically more than once a week), provided that alternative options are available nearby, and travelers have information on these options. This requires good walking conditions between parking facilities and the destinations they may serve. Parking planning can therefore include shared parking, parking pricing and regulations, parking user Information, and walkability improvements.”
Professor Donald Shoup’s works including “The High Cost of Free Parking”
argues how legally mandated parking found in our codes and regulations lowers the market price for parking thusly creating economic inefficiencies and a host of additional externalities resulting from subsidies parking. In the United States where 99% of all automobile trips end in a free parking space, Shoup estimated that the value of the free-parking subsidy to cars was at least $127 billion in 2002, and possibly much more.
Parking Cash-Out programs
An employer gives employees a choice to keep a parking space at work, or to accept a cash payment and give up the parking space.
Transportation Demand Management (TDM, also called Mobility Management)
a general term for strategies that result in more efficient use of transportation resources. Examples include alternating work schedules to avoid peak hour trips, investments in transit, bicycling and walking facilities, supporting ride/bike- share programs, and investments in Transit Oriented Development.
Transportation Control Measures (TCMs)
strategies that reduce transportation-related air pollution, GHG emissions, and fuel use by reducing vehicle miles traveled and improving roadway operations. Vehicle use can be reduced through less-polluting transportation alternatives, such as public transit, and strategies that decrease the need for vehicle trips, such as telecommuting.
Vision Zero
strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. First implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has proved successful across Europe
Sample of rough trip
Sample of rough parking space requirements
