College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

CGN 6655: REGIONAL PLANNING, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT (3)

Course Instructors: Dr. Naveen Eluru

Credit Hours: 3

Course Description
Overview of urban transportation planning approaches, introduction to 4-step planning approach,
quantitative methods for the individual steps (trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and
traffic assignment), and drawbacks of 4-step approach, recent advances in travel demand models.

Course Objectives
In this course, the students will gain conceptual understanding of the 4-step method – a common
planning framework employed in metropolitan agencies in United States. The first part of the
class provides knowledge of the various components of the 4-step process focussing mainly on
the quantitative methods. The second part of the course focuses on providing students with a
hands-on experience in developing the four modules through a group project. Finally, in the third
part, a critique of the 4-step method and recent advances to address the drawbacks are discussed.

Assessment
Assignments - 75 %
Class Participation* - 10 %
Term Paper - 15%

I will adopt the plus/minus grading system. All grades for the assignments and term paper will be
posted on webcourses.

*For distance learning students 10% is equally allocated to the assignments and Term Paper.

Location and time:

Lectures - MW: 4:30 PM – 5:45 PM Room: BA1 O216

Office Hours:
Monday and Wednesday 3.00 – 4.15 pm or by e-mail
Office Location Engr 2, 301D
Email: naveen.eluru@ucf.edu

Pre-requisites
It is required that the student have a background in basic calculus and statistics

Software
SPSS and BIOGEME will be used for the course as needed. Other software including R, SAS,
and STATA will be permitted

REGIONAL PLANNING, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT (CGN 6655) – Course Outline

 College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Make -up Exam Policy

Requests for make-up exams are strongly discouraged. Such requests will be accommodated
only under exceptional situations and when prior permission from the instructor has been sought
adequately in advance.

Federal Aid Policy

As of Fall 2014, all faculty members are required to document students' academic activity at the
beginning of each course. In order to document that you began this course, please complete the
following academic activity by the end of the first week of classes, or as soon as possible after
adding the course, but no later than August 27. Failure to do so will result in a delay in the
disbursement of your financial aid.

Complete Assignment 0 to be posted on Webcourses.

Lectures
Classes will be conducted in a lecture/discussion format. Students are encouraged (and expected)
to contribute to the discussions: 10% of the global mark is based on the student involvement.

Term Project
The objective of the term project is to provide exposure to the class to existing transportation
planning frameworks. Towards this end, each individual will review an urban transportation
planning frameworks under application for a metropolitan region. The projects can also include
frameworks in development with the approval of the instructor. The individual will describe the
framework, identify critical components and provide a critique of the application. The students
will do an oral presentation of their project to the class. The final written submission will be in
the form of a report (10-12 pages) documenting the various sections.

Textbook
The course does not have a required textbook. Lecture slides/notes and references to other
reading material (such as journal publications, book chapters, and web sites) will be made
available electronically via the course web site or provided as hand-outs in class.

Reference Texts
1. Ortuzar, J. D. and L. G. Willumsen (2011). Modelling transport, Wiley. 4th ed.
2. Meyer, M. D. and Miller, E. J. Urban Transportation Planning: A Decision Oriented
Approach, McGraw-Hill, 2001.
3. Ben-Akiva, M. and Lerman, S. R. Discrete Choice Analysis: Theory and Application to
Travel Demand, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985.

Acknowledgements
The instructor acknowledges Prof. Chandra Bhat, Prof. Mohamed Abdel-Aty, Prof. Siva
Srinivasan, Prof. Abdul Pinjari and Prof. Karthik Konduri whose material from previous
offerings of similar courses was used as guidance in this offering of the course.

REGIONAL PLANNING, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT (CGN 6655) – Course Outline

 College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Academic Honesty
Plagiarism and Cheating of any kind on an assignment or term project will result at least in an
"F" for that assignment (and may, depending on the severity of the case, lead to an "F" for the
entire course) and may be subject to appropriate referral to the Office of Student Conduct for
further action. For further information visit the following websites:
http://osc.sdes.ucf.edu/
http://goldenrule.sdes.ucf.edu/

Disability Statement
The University of Central Florida is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all
persons with disabilities. This syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. Students
with disabilities who need accommodations in this course must contact the professor at the
beginning of the semester to discuss needed accommodations. Students who need
accommodations must be registered with Student Disability Services, Student Resource Center
Room 132, phone (407) 823-2371, TTY/TDD only phone (407) 823-2116.

REGIONAL PLANNING, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT (CGN 6655) – Course Outline

 College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Course Outline

Lecture Topics Covered

Week 1 Introduction

Urban/Regional Transportation Planning Process

Overview of the “Four-Step” travel-demand forecasting procedure – Trip
Generation, Trip Distribution, Modal Split and Traffic Assignment

Week 2 Trip Generation

Simple (Cross-classification) approaches

Regression models for trip productions
Assignment 1

Weeks 3 - 6 Trip Generation (continued)

Linear Regression
- Introduction
- Specification and interpretation
- Ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation (using SPSS software)
- Hypothesis testing, goodness of fit, and model refinement
- Market segmentation and nonlinearities
- Empirical applications using travel-survey data

Aggregate models for trip attractions

Trip balancing
Assignment 2 and 3

Week 6-7 Trip Distribution

Growth factor approaches

Gravity model
Calibration (determination of the friction factors)
Application for forecasting
Disaggregate location-choice models

Student-Instructor meetings to discuss possible frameworks for student term

paper

REGIONAL PLANNING, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT (CGN 6655) – Course Outline

 College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Week 8 & 11 Mode Choice

Theory of random-utility maximization

Specification and estimation of logit models
Empirical applications using travel survey data

Assignment 4

Week 12-13 Traffic Assignment

Creating OD matrices from PA matrices

Network representation and shortest-path concepts
User equilibrium
System optimum

Assignment 5
Week 14 Summary of the Trip-based Approach
Florida Standard Urban Transportation Model Structure (FSUTMS)
Week 15 Recent advances in state of the art transportation modeling
A critical assessment of the state-of-the-practice approach
Operational activity-based models
Week 16 Project presentations

REGIONAL PLANNING, DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT (CGN 6655) – Course Outline