Travel Forecasting

Texas A&M Transportation Institute
505 East Huntland Drive
Suite 455
Austin, TX 78752
(512) 407-1164
[email protected]

Hao Pang is an Associate Research Scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute with over 10 years of experience in travel demand forecasting and data visualization. He holds a Ph.D. in Community and Regional Planning (transportation focus) from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on developing travel demand models, enhancing forecasting accuracy, and applying innovative visualization techniques.

Hao has played a key role in advancing the TexPACK travel demand model, which supports most Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) across Texas. He led the development of TripCAL6, a next-generation trip generation model built using GISDK, which incorporates smoothed Census data, zonal demographic disaggregation, sub-area production-attraction balancing, and detailed summary reports. He also created VALID10, a robust model validation tool that compiles and summarizes key validation metrics to support quality assurance in model performance. His work on these tools has significantly improved the analytical capabilities and usability of the TexPACK framework. 

A major emphasis of Hao’s recent work is on data visualization—designing tools that make complex transportation modeling outputs accessible, engaging, and understandable to a wide range of stakeholders. He has developed a suite of interactive, HTML-based reporting tools using open-source technologies like JavaScript and JSON. These tools feature dynamic tables, charts, figures, and maps, all packaged in a user-friendly, stand-alone format that requires no specialized software. His visualizations have been used by state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), MPOs, consultants, and the public to explore model results intuitively. The tools have been presented at international transportation conferences and have received high praise for improving transparency, communication, and decision-making in transportation planning.