TRB Travel Forecasting Committee
The focus of this committee includes the integration of travel and land use theory and relevant fields of science, numerical methods, and data in order to produce relevant and actionable insights within a variety of decision-making contexts.
Announcements
Miss our Annual Committee Meeting in Jan 2023?
Check out the minutes to learn what you missed and learn how you can participate
Summaries of other workshops, meetings, and sessions sponsored by this committee are forthcoming.
Latest
Congratulations to the 2022 Chandra-Bot Paper Reviewing All-Stars!
Patrick Singleton
Billy Charlton
Rolf Moeckel
Milad Ghasri
Committee Initiatives
Equity
Initiative focused on how our forecasting process and the planning process work together to support equity and mobility justice and how it can be used to influence decisions that will serve broader transportation needs and higher quality of life outcomes, particularly for those who have historically borne the brunt of negative transportation impacts . >> More
Uncertainty
Initiative focused on how information about error and uncertainty should affect our modeling and forecasting processes and how we can most effectively inform decision-makers faced with uncertainty underpinning the baseline assumptions in travel forecasting and planning in order for them to make robust and effective decisions.
Ongoing Activities
Research Priorities
Objective: Direct research resources towards promising avenues for impact.
Our Committee Research Coordinator is responsible for maintaining our Committee Research priorities and roadmap, which will be informed by the Sunday Morning workshop at the TRB Annual Meeting "Setting the Research Needs in Travel Forecasting".
Research Quality
Objective: Improve the quality of submitted, presented, and published research. as measured by:
Impact of published work in TRR which was referred by papers recommended by this committee
Number of high-quality papers presented annually
Number of high-quality reviews per paper
Overseen by the Paper Review Coordinator, David Ory and facilitated by the Chandra-Bot initiative to bring data intelligence to the TRB Paper Review Process. See: https://github.com/aep50/chandra-bot
Technology Transfer
Objective: Practitioners and researchers alike know about and understand relevant, important + useful research findings as well as best practices (and realities) for travel forecasting in practice as measured by:
Unique monthly visitors to tfresource.org
Number of submissions for “impactful research” Zephie award, given by the Zephyr Foundation
Number of high-quality, practice-ready papers reviewed per year.
Overseen by the Chair of the Subcommittee on Technology Transfer, Greg MacFarlane, and supported by members of that Subcommittee and facilitated by the Travel Forecasting Resource.
The Travel Forecasting Resource is an industry-vetted resource on the what and how of the art and science of travel forecasting. It is maintained by our Travel Forecasting Resource Subcommittee, which is chaired by Greg MacFarland and meets monthly. Community contributions and attendance at subcommittee meetings is welcome!
Calendar of Events
"TRB Family"
The TRB Committee on Travel Forecasting (AEP50) exists within the AEP "Section", with close ties to the following committees.
Addresses the dynamic institutional relationships and interactive processes associated with transportation planning and its governance stakeholders. It supports the critical role of developing, managing and implementing long range plans (both within the traditional transportation planning process as well as within a multitude of related topics), as well as policy development, performance management and research across all transportation modes. The committee also provides an objective, collaborative forum to explore all related facets of transportation planning including strategic, technical and consensus building roles.
The Standing Committee for Transportation Planning Methods and Applications focuses on traditional, new and/or improved transportation planning methods and techniques, with an emphasis on their practical application for transportation planning across the range of rural, small and medium sized urban areas, as well as large metropolitan areas and mega regions. The Committee expressly promotes participation in the research process and fosters the close linkage of analytic methods with modeling and other forms of technical planning practices that have tangible benefits for real-world applications including translation of technical data and information to inform discussion and debates about broad community based policy decisions.. This includes networking and the exchange of ideas among researchers, practitioners and experts in other relevant fields of study that have tangible benefits for real-world applications.
The committee will be concerned with promoting research and disseminating research results on traveler values, attitudes, and behavior. Traveler values and attitudes refer to motivational, cognitive, situation and disposition factors determining human behavior. Traveler behavior refers primarily to the modeling and analysis of travel demand, based on theories from a variety of scientific fields. These include but are not limited to time use and activity-based approaches, longitudinal methods, and spatial behavior at any level of aggregation (e.g., individual, household, community, and so forth). The committee will serve as a forum for the development, testing, and dissemination of new interdisciplinary methods of inquiry.
The committee will promote research and information exchange in transportation network modeling, an interdisciplinary field spanning Computer Science, Logistics, Mathematics, Operations Research, Telecommunications, and Transportation Science. The committee will also focus on: the understanding and modeling of the technological and behavioral factors affecting the performance of transportation systems; modeling the interactions between the infrastructure and transportation networks; and the development and use of models to evaluate the quantity and quality of transportation facilities and services. The committee will serve as a focus for the development, adaptation, and implementation of quantitative and computer-based methodologies for the above purposes. The committee will cut across traditional modal boundaries, seeking unifying conceptual and methodological frameworks, yet highlighting modal differences. As such, it will foster effective and rapid sharing of information and experiences among researchers, practitioners, regulators and decision makers.
The Transportation Demand Management Committee focuses on research and application of strategies for modifying travel behavior to achieve more equitable mobility outcomes while making better, more efficient use of transportation infrastructure. These strategies include, but are not limited to: pricing, behavioral incentives, parking and curbside management, mobility-as a-service, and supporting modes like transit, walking, biking, and sharing rides. The committee is also focused on the development and integration of new technologies to provide travel information to users and enable next generation mobility options.