Feasibility of Developing a Statewide Modeling System for Forecasting Intercity Highway Volumes in Texas, Info. Report #7 (1235-4)

In the urban transportation studies in Texas, computerized network based models (i.e., the urban travel forecasting models) are used to forecast future traffic volumes on the planned urban freeways and arterials to evaluate the capability of the proposed system to handle the forecast demand. Comparable statewide models (i.e., computerized network-based models) for forecasting intercity highway volumes on the rural segments of the proposed Texas Highway Trunk System are not currently available in Texas. If such a set of models could be implemented for Texas, they would be useful in reviewing and updating the Texas Highway Trunk System Plan every five years. The feasibility of developing and implementing such a statewide modeling system was investigated as a part of the first year program under Study 2-10-90-1235. The objectives of this first year effort were:|1. To review and evaluate the current state of the practice for statewide models which focus on forecasting highway volumes on the rural sections of a statewide system such as the Texas Highway Trunk System; and,|2. Based on these investigations, to recommend a set of statewide network-based modeling techniques that could be considered for implementation in Texas.|This report presents the findings and recommendations from this investigation.