Transportation Planning Handbook

Michael D. Meyer

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781118762356
• eBook ISBN: 9781118762394
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

A multi-disciplinary approach to transportation planning fundamentals

The Transportation Planning Handbook is a comprehensive, practice-oriented reference that presents the fundamental concepts of transportation planning alongside proven techniques. This new fourth edition is more strongly focused on serving the needs of all users, the role of safety in the planning process, and transportation planning in the context of societal concerns, including the development of more sustainable transportation solutions. The content structure has been redesigned with a new format that promotes a more functionally driven multimodal approach to planning, design, and implementation, including guidance toward the latest tools and technology. The material has been updated to reflect the latest changes to major transportation resources such as the HCM, MUTCD, HSM, and more, including the most current ADA accessibility regulations.

Transportation planning has historically followed the rational planning model of defining objectives, identifying problems, generating and evaluating alternatives, and developing plans. Planners are increasingly expected to adopt a more multi-disciplinary approach, especially in light of the rising importance of sustainability and environmental concerns. This book presents the fundamentals of transportation planning in a multidisciplinary context, giving readers a practical reference for day-to-day answers.

• Serve the needs of all users
• Incorporate safety into the planning process
• Examine the latest transportation planning software packages
• Get up to date on the latest standards, recommendations, and codes

Developed by The Institute of Transportation Engineers, this book is the culmination of over seventy years of transportation planning solutions, fully updated to reflect the needs of a changing society. For a comprehensive guide with practical answers, The Transportation Planning Handbook is an essential reference.

Chapter 1
Introduction to Transportation Planning¹

I. INTRODUCTION

The economic health and quality of life of a nation's communities depend on a well-functioning and safe transportation system. For example, following housing costs, transportation is one of the biggest expenses faced by an average household in the United States and in many other countries. This is usually measured by the actual out-of-pocket costs associated with owning and operating vehicles or paying for transit fares. When one considers the value of time it takes to travel from one location to another, often in congested conditions, this cost increases significantly. The cost of freight and goods movement is also an economic cost passed on to consumers that will vary depending on the price of transportation.

The accessibility and mobility provided by transportation systems can influence land use patterns and, thus, over time affect how we live. The best example of this relationship is the large-scale suburbanization of U.S. metropolitan areas and of those in many other countries after World War II when massive investment was made in suburban freeways. Today, transportation investment is often an integral part of economic and development plans, usually including transit, pedestrian, bicyclist facilities, and actions to manage transportation demand. The importance of transportation investment in transforming communities raises questions of who is benefiting and who is carrying additional burdens after the system has changed. These are questions that are part of many transportation planning studies.

The public is also concerned about the environmental impacts linked to transportation systems and their operation. This has been manifested in many environmental laws and regulations that affect how transportation planning is conducted and the types of data and tools that must be used.

These, along with many other reasons, suggest that the transportation system is a critical component of a successful modern community and economy. Thus, anticipating the challenges and opportunities relating to transportation system performance is critical not only to future transportation system effectiveness, but also to the economic and social well-being of our communities.

This handbook examines many facets of transportation planning. Transportation planning can be a highly technical process, which often relies on computer models and other sophisticated tools to simulate the complex interactions of transportation system performance. It is a public relationship-oriented process in that transportation planners often interact with a wide range of stakeholders and members of the public. Transportation planning can also become intertwined with the politics of any given decision.

Some transportation planners and engineers focus on transportation supply—the facilities and services needed to handle expected demands and characteristics of the infrastructure to provide such service. Others are more interested in influencing travel behavior to promote more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable options for travelers.

Given the breadth of topics and issues that transportation planners can become involved in, transportation planning necessarily includes a wide range of interests, skills, and expertise. Perhaps the most important characteristic of any transportation planning process is to remain flexible given the dynamic nature of community planning and decision making, and the importance of transportation planning providing input into this process. This need for flexibility will be particularly important as the types of investment decisions for transportation systems evolve over the next several decades in response to changing demographic and technology factors.

II. ORGANIZATION OF THIS HANDBOOK

This handbook is organized to reflect different levels of user familiarity with transportation planning. Not only do transportation planners need to know about the defining characteristics of the transportation system itself, but given a variety of transportation planning contexts, they must also understand the specific application contexts they are working in. In addition, transportation planning can be applied at a multimodal level, for example, statewide or metropolitan transportation planning efforts where all modes of transportation are considered, or it may target a very specific transportation strategy or element, such as freight planning.

The handbook is organized to answer six major questions:

1. What is transportation planning?
2. Chapter 1: Introduction to Transportation Planning
3. What are the basic concepts for understanding transportation systems and their relationship to the community?
4. Chapter 2: Travel Characteristics and Data
5. Chapter 3: Land Use and Urban Design
6. Chapter 4: Environmental Considerations
7. Chapter 5: Transportation Finance and Funding
8. What are the types of tools and analysis methods used in transportation planning?
9. Chapter 6: Travel Demand and Network Modeling
10. Chapter 7: Evaluation and Prioritization Methods
11. Chapter 8: Asset Management
12. How does one plan for mode-specific transportation networks?
13. Chapter 9: Road and Highway Planning
14. Chapter 10: Transportation System Management and Operations
15. Chapter 11: Planning for Parking
16. Chapter 12: Transit Planning
17. Chapter 13: Planning for Pedestrians and Bicyclists
18. Chapter 14: Travel Demand Management
19. How does one plan for multimodal transportation networks?
20. Chapter 15: Statewide Transportation Planning
21. Chapter 16: Metropolitan Transportation Planning
22. Chapter 17: Corridor Planning
23. Chapter 18: Local and Activity Center Planning
24. Chapter 19: Site Planning and Impact Analysis
25. Chapter 20: Rural Community and Tribal Nation Planning
26. Chapter 21: Recreational Areas
27. What are some special planning applications transportation planners should know about?
28. Chapter 22: Integrating Freight into the Transportation Planning Process
29. Chapter 23: Playing it Safe—Safety Considerations in the Transportation Planning Process
30. Chapter 24: Public Participation and Engagement

Individual chapters provide linkages to relevant information in other chapters of the handbook. For example, transportation professionals interested primarily in Chapter 12 on transit planning, will find references to other chapters on travel demand models and data collection that provide more in-depth coverage of a transit-related application. Thus, in some cases, chapters that in other texts would have spent considerable time discussing some aspect of a particular topic (such as transit demand modeling), the reader is directed to other parts of the handbook. Given the breadth of many transportation planning studies, it should not be surprising that, in some instances, almost every chapter in the handbook could be relevant to a particular study.

In addition, given the importance of performance measures in today's transportation planning, instead of discussing their definition and role in one chapter, the discussion of performance measures is found in each chapter where appropriate. In this way, performance measures can be discussed with specific reference to how they can be used for different modes and planning efforts.

The remainder of this chapter describes the transportation planning process and the legal/regulatory foundation in the United States for much of what occurs in transportation planning today.

III. THE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PROCESS

Transportation planning is often portrayed as an orderly and rational process of steps that logically follow one another. In reality, planning and project development are much more complex, often with many different activities occurring concurrently. Shown in Figure 1.1, the planning process starts with understanding the problems facing a community and ending with a solution to identified problems (projects programmed and designed). In a typical planning context, many of these steps may have already occurred and therefore are not relevant to a particular planning effort. For example, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in the United States have been developing transportation plans for decades, and as a result, a typical planning effort might simply be updating an existing transportation plan. In the context of Figure 1.1, the development of goals, objectives and performance measures might consist of validating those that were developed for the prior version of the plan. Even with these caveats, the planning process shown in Figure 1.1 helps identify important components of the planning process and how they relate to one another. The planning process in Figure 1.1 will be referenced throughout this handbook.

Figure 1.1 Conceptual Framework for Transportation Planning

Source: Adapted from Meyer and Miller, 2014, Reproduced with permission of M. Meyer.

A. Major Steps in Transportation Planning

The planning process begins with an understanding of the socio-demographic, land-use, and economic context within which a transportation system operates. This is followed by becoming aware of the problems, challenges, opportunities, and deficiencies of transportation system performance within this context, be it a state, province, region, or community. This usually entails some form of analysis and assessment of the changing context of transportation system performance and an examination of both the existing and expected challenges facing the transportation system. This initial step is important because a planning agency usually begins a planning study based on the planning and analysis that has preceded it. More often, a transportation plan is being updated, or some specific problems have been identified that require a planning effort to be undertaken. Understanding the nature of the challenges facing a community thus becomes an important starting point for the planning steps that follow.

The next step is developing a community or study area vision. The dimensions of the vision portrayed in Figure 1.1 reflect the interaction among desired states of economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity/ community quality of life. These three factors have been chosen purposely as defining a vision because they are often considered to be the three major elements of sustaina...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Editor
• Chapter 1: Introduction to Transportation Planning
• Chapter 2: Travel Characteristics and Data
• Chapter 3: Land Use and Urban Design
• Chapter 4: Environmental Considerations
• Chapter 5: Transportation Finance and Funding
• Chapter 6: Travel Demand and Network Modeling
• Chapter 7: Evaluation and Prioritization Methods
• Chapter 8: Asset Management
• Chapter 9: Road and Highway Planning
• Chapter 10: Transportation System Management and Operations
• Chapter 11: Planning for Parking
• Chapter 12: Transit Planning
• Chapter 13: Planning for Pedestrians and Bicyclists
• Chapter 14: Travel Demand Management
• Chapter 15: Statewide Transportation Planning
• Chapter 16: Metropolitan Transportation Planning
• Chapter 17: Corridor Planning
• Chapter 18: Local and Activity Center Planning
• Chapter 19: Site Planning and Impact Analysis
• Chapter 20: Rural Community and Tribal Nation Planning
• Chapter 21: Recreational Areas
• Chapter 22: Integrating Freight into the Transportation Planning Process
• Chapter 23: Planning It Safe-Safety Considerations in the Transportation Planning Process
• Chapter 24: Public Participation and Engagement
• Index
• End User License Agreement