Jointly sponsored by the Transportation Research Board, Federal Highway Administration, and Federal Transit Administration.

SUBMIT PAPERS

Submission Deadline: November 16, 2011

The mission of this conference is to provide a “bridge” between the worlds of research and practice in travel modeling. Held in alternate years since 2006, the conference has already proved itself to be an indispensible opportunity for information exchange between cutting-edge researchers and practitioners and providing professionals with key information to guide the trajectory of their work in directions that foster rapid and effective adoption of research into practical applications. The 4th conference in this series will be held in Tampa, Florida in April 2012. Located in the west coast of Florida, Tampa offers a variety of attractions, including fine beaches, arts, natural recreation, theme parks, museums, and night life. The city was ranked as the 5th best city in America for the outdoors by Forbes in 2008 and has been listed consistently in the U.S. top 10 by “Dr. Beach”.

The organizing committee seeks contributions on all areas of innovative travel modeling research and practice for presentation at the conference. The following topical areas are of particular interest:

1. integrated modeling methods,
2. improving the sensitivity of models,
3. modeling under-studied travel markets,
4. data collection and usage,
5. model validations and transferability,
6. implementation and applications of advanced models,
7. computational issues, and
8. work force development.

Examples of topics under each of these broad areas are provided in a separate table.

 

Topic Area	Selected Examples of Topics
Innovations in Integrated Modeling Methods	(1) Integrations of major travel model components such as: (a) Travel-demand & network simulation models, (b) Land-use & transport models,  and (c) Transport & emissions/energy models; (2) Integrations in scale such as regional and state-wide models;  (3) Supply-chain/logistics-based freight modeling
Innovations in Improving the Sensitivity of Models	(1) Enhancing the resolution of models (such as continuous space/time models);  (2) Capturing the impacts of accessibility and urban structure (all the “D”s) on travel; (3) Incorporating the supply-side of activities (e.g., the attractions);  (4) Capturing  sensitivity to reliability of travel times;  (5) Capturing macro-trends (e.g., rapid growth,  recessions, ICT technology, household formation rates).
Innovations in Modeling Under-Studied Travel Markets	(1) Non-resident / visitor travel;  (2) Emerging modes such as shuttles, scooters, bike, walk, bike to/on transit and informal ride sharing;  (3) Auto availability in a world of public and private forms of car-sharing;  (4) Parking behaviors;  (5) Children's travel;  (6) Travel to special events;  (7) Short-distance commercial vehicles and long-distance freight; (8) Long-distance / external travel including  inter-city travel within mega-regions; (9) Innovative uses of ICT for making travel choices; (9) Data issues and the modeling of rare/emerging travel markets
Innovations in Data Collection and Usage	(1) Data from non-traditional data sources such as cell-phones; (2) Using GPS for person and freight data collection;  (3) Value of / issues with continuous data collection;  (4) Innovative uses of new national  datasets (US Census’ SF1, ACS, LEHD) and time-use / travel surveys (NHTS, ATUS); (5) Borrowing data from other regions;  (6) Use of parcel-level land-use data
Innovations in Model Validations & Transferability	(1) Use of predicted-actual studies for validations; (2) Implications of various spatial/temporal resolution and demographic stratification;  (3) Transferability of travel-demand models; (4) What is the ‘correct’ answer? Innovative ways of getting and processing validation data.
Innovations in Implementation and Application	(1) Lessons learned from transitioning from a trip-based model to activity-based models & implications for transportation planning; (2) Determining project-level economic impacts & benefits of transportation investments using a regional travel-demand model; (3) Quantification and presentation of uncertainty in project-level demand forecasts;  (4) Quality assurance procedures for advanced models; (5) “Now we can answer that” The use of advanced models to answer questions that we could not previously (physical activity, peak-spreading, pricing, and environmental justice analysis)
Innovations in Computation	(1) Computational efficiency; (2) Reducing or addressing simulation errors; (3) Computational methods; (4) Approaches for data storage and access; (5) Cloud computing
Innovations in Workforce Development	Issues with readying an existing and emerging work force for developing and using advanced travel-demand models.

As the focus of the conference is on “innovations”, the organizing committee seeks to foster explicit discussion and description of work that falls within the multi-dimensional space that innovation covers. Example directions in innovation include further steps along the dominant path in a particular field as well as branches away from that direction that may provide illuminating contrast. Evaluation of the effects of innovations already brought into practice is also crucial to guiding future research directions, including theoretical effectiveness (accuracy, sensitivity, etc.) and practical effectiveness (ease of use, maintenance, etc.) Respondents should address how their submitted work fosters these and/or other aspects of innovation and discuss possible applications of the innovation they propose. The committee encourages “concept” or “idea” papers in addition to studies focusing on empirical analyses.

Short papers (NOT abstracts) should be submitted for possible inclusion in the conference, through the conference submission website no later than Monday, November 16, 2011. Short papers should be between 2000 and 3000 equivalent words (each table/figure will count as 250 words). Articles exceeding the word limit will not be considered. Papers must clearly and succinctly describe (1) objectives, motivations and innovation, (2) methodology, (3) expected major results, and (4) implications for the science and/or practice of travel modeling.

Special issues of Transportation Journal(s) are also being considered as an outlet for selected papers presented at this conference. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit full papers at a later date and these will be reviewed according to the standard procedures of the chosen journal.