FY2025 Work Program

Support the economic vitality of the region, increase safety for all users, improve accessibility for people and freight, protect the environment, enhance connectivity between modes, and promote the efficient management and operation of the existing transportation system through the development and use of transportation, air quality, economic development and land use models.

The Travel and Land Use Modeling program maintains and applies DVRPC’s Land Use, Travel Demand, Economic Development, and Air Quality Models in support of regional planning activities. Short and long-range regional, corridor, and facility planning studies require accurate socioeconomic, land use, and travel data. The models that produce these forecasts need to be calibrated and validated with current data. Validation and refinement of DVRPC’s land use, travel simulation, and mobile source emissions models are needed on a continuing basis to maintain the accuracy and credibility of forecasts and to respond to new mandates and guidance from the federal government, state agencies, and member governments.

Major activities include collecting travel data and statistics, preparing highway and transit networks, validating travel simulation models, implementing new forecasting procedures and methods, applying the models to produce forecasts for various planning projects, and serving as a repository for socio-economic, travel, and air quality related data. Major model outputs include highway and transit facility volumes, regional and corridor travel patterns, estimates of vehicle-miles of travel by vehicle type and functional class, and transit ridership statistics. Current and projected land use patterns and highway and transit network model inputs are updated as required and the models are applied on an ongoing basis in support of regional and corridor planning studies, facility design data requests, transportation air quality conformity demonstrations, land use impact studies, highway and transit traffic studies, bicycle and pedestrian facility planning, and other planning activities.

DVRPC undertakes a continuous program of travel model maintenance, development, and enhancement. Socio-economic, land use, travel, and transportation-related data are collected, analyzed, and incorporated into DVRPC’s models on a regular basis. These data include travel trends, traffic volumes, transit ridership, travel times, fares, operating costs, tolls, parking charges, freight movements, changes in transit service patterns and schedules, and changes to highway facilities or operations due to construction or reconstruction. New modeling procedures and methods due to changes in the state-of-the practice, software updates, or new guidance from FHWA, FTA, EPA, or others are evaluated and implemented.

In FY2025, DVRPC will review available Land Use and Socioeconomic data forecasting models, including the NextGen UrbanSim model and develop a migration plan. This program area will support DVRPC's role in the development of new FHWA Adjusted Urbanized Area boundaries, Federal Functional Classification and National Highway System updates, and scenario planning. DVRPC will also begin collecting traffic counts and other data at approximately 500 locations along its screenlines and cordon lines that will be needed for its next required Model Validation.

Some of these activities may require DVRPC to purchase equipment, training, or services, including software maintenance for PTV VISUM & VISSIM, and DaySim software and NETS employment and CoStar real estate databases.

1. Collect data on traffic volumes including autos, trucks, bikes, pedestrians, and transit riders by direction and time of day.
2. Collect, tabulate, and analyze travel time data for selected corridors from Traffic.com, INRIX, HERE, and other sources.
3. Collect other transportation data, including vehicle-miles of travel, journey-to-work, parking shed, external travel, tolls and fares, and trip length frequency.
4. Update highway, transit, and bike/ped networks for base and future years, to reflect federal functional class changes, and TIP and Plan project changes; as well as updated tolls, fares, and parking charges.
5. Collect data on employment and land use changes.
6. Revise zonal demographic and employment data and forecasts, including extended model area, as needed.
7. Update vehicle registration, age distributions, fuel, I/M programs, and other inputs for air quality post-processor and MOVES model, as needed.
8. Prepare air quality conformity demonstrations and SIP revisions as needed using the MOVES2014b or MOVES3 air quality model.
9. Analyze on-road emissions for the Regional Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory
10. Analyze bike, pedestrian, transit, and highway projects, as required. 
11. Prepare estimates of truck and bus travel, as needed.
12. Prepare growth factors as required to support regional planning and engineering efforts.
13. Prepare trip tables, select-link analysis, and other travel model tabulations, as required.
14. Respond to other member governments and planning partners requests for socio-economic, travel, and transportation system data and statistics.
15. Update transportation-related data and parameters for DVRPC's current UrbanSIM model and other land use and economic impact tools, as needed.
16. Review NextGen UrbanSIM model and competing Land Use Models and determine which will best meet DVRPC's future land use modeling and socioeconomic forecasting needs.
17. Initiate migration to NextGen UrbanSIM or other successor model, as needed.
    
18. Support member governments and state DOTs in the update of the Federal Functional Classification and National Highway systems.

1. Summaries of screenline traffic volumes and transit ridership.
2. Summaries of vehicle-miles traveled by county and functional class. 
3. Summaries of corridor travel times.
4. Base and future-year highway and transit networks.
5. Summaries of the results of air quality conformity demonstrations.
6. Travel patterns, volumes, statistics, etc. for data request and to support member governments and other DVRPC planning efforts.
7. Average annual growth factors by County and Functional class.
8. Growth rates and other model data to support planning efforts as required.
9. Migration plan for new land use and socioeconomic forecasting model(s).
10. Updated Federal Functional Classifications for the region's roadways. 
    
11. Up-to-data travel model documentation.
    
    
    

State DOTs, transit operators, member counties and cities, and local governments.