Holy Angel University

School of Engineering and Architecture

Department of Civil Engineering
Transportation Engineering

Route #3
Urban Transportation Planning
Concepts
This chapter summarizes the importance of urban planning

Introduction and the role that it takes in making sure that the
transportation system is efficiently utilized.

Content This chapter focuses on

➢ Urban Planning
➢ Zoning

Objectives After this chapter, the student should be able to

➢ Learn the importance of Urban Planning
➢ Learn the importance of Zoning

Related These are supplemental content necessary for this chapter

➢ Highway Capacity Manual 2010

Readings ➢ DPWH Highway Safety Design Standards

References Rogers, M. (2016). Highway engineering. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons
Mannering F. (2009). Principles of Highway Engineering and Traffic Analysis (4th
ed.).
Upadhyay, A.K. (2016). Transportation engineering. New Delhi: S.K. Kataria & Sons
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Concepts
Urban Planning

Definitions
Planning - the process of working out, beforehand, scheme, program, or method for the
accomplishment of an objective.
Urban Transportation Planning
1. Understand how decisions to build transportation facilities are made
2. Understand basic elements of the transportation planning process.
3. Understand basic elements of travel forecasting
Common Types of Urban Land Uses
Urban land uses classified as:
1. Residential.
2. Commercial. (ex. Shopping centers change with times)
3. Industrial.
4. Institutional. (ex. Educational, governmental)
5. Recreational.
6. Agricultural.
A set of alternative transport plan is then generated for that horizon year . These plans incorporate
varying nature and amount of transport facilities. The operating characteristics of
each alternative in the horizon year are then estimated in the form of flows on each link of the horizon-
year networks.
The usual criterion for choice among the alternatives is that the difference between the
collective benefits to users ( in the form of reduced travel impedance) and the money costs of
constructing and maintaining these facilities should be a maximum.
Basic Elements of Transportation Planning
Situation definition - Inventory transportation facilities, Measure travel patterns, Review prior studies.
Problem definition - Define objectives (e.g., Reduce travel time), Establish criteria (e.g., Average delay
time), Define constraints, Establish design standards
Search for solutions - Consider options (e.g., locations and types, structure needs, environmental
considerations)
Analysis of performance - For each option, determine cost, traffic flow, impacts
Evaluation of alternatives - Determine values for the criteria set for evaluation (e.g., benefits vs. cost,
cost-effectiveness, etc)
Choice of project - Consider factors involved (e.g., goal attainability, political judgment, environmental
impact, etc.)
Specification and construction - Once an alternative is chosen, design necessary
elements of the facility and create construction plans

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Example 1: Planning the relocation of a rural road (simple, yet good enough to explain the
steps…)
Step 1: Situation definition:
to understand the situation that gave rise to the perceived need for a transportation
improvement

Step 2: Problem definition

Purpose of the step: Describe the problem in terms of the objectives to be accomplished and
translate those objectives into criteria.
Example:
Objective = Statements of purpose: Reduce traffic congestion, Improve safety,
Maximize net highway-user benefits, etc.
Criteria = Measures of effectiveness: Travel time, accident rate, delays (interested in
reductions in these MOEs).

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Step 3: Search for solutions

Step 4: Analysis of performance

Estimate how each of the proposed alternatives would perform under present and future
conditions.

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Step 4: Ranking of alternatives (in terms of MOE)

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Step 5: Evaluation of alternatives
Determine how well each alternative will achieve the objectives of the project as defined by
Criteria.

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Step 6: Choice of project
Based on the alternative evaluation in Step 5, we will choose the best alternative for
design and eventual construction. The best choice may not be built because of
opposition by the people of the community that is affected.
Step 7: Specification and construction
Once the project has been chosen, a detailed design phase is begun, in which each of
the components of the facility is specified.

System and environment

A system may be defined as a set of components that is organized in such a manner as to direct the
action of the system under inputs toward specific goals and objectives. An environment may be
defined as to set of all components outside a system, which both influences the behavior of the system
and which intern is influenced by the behavior of the system.
System → all modes for urban transportation
- Bus
- Transit
- Taxi
- Passenger car.
- Etc.
We can classified them as follows:
1. Urban passenger transportation system.
2. Urban public transportation system.
3. Urban goods transport system.
4. Urban intermediate public transport system.
5. Urban personal transport system.
The urban transportation system may be thought as responding to the social and economic forces that
exit in urban areas. This urban socioeconomic environment is in turn influenced by the characteristics of
the transport system. The role of the system planner may be conceived, in general way, as the direction
of her efforts to design a system that achieves maximum integration, or degree of fit between the
system and its environment.
Example (1)
Goal : Maximize mobility of people and goods
Related objectives:
1. Minimize travel time.
2. Minimize travel cost.
3. Provide adequate frequency of service.
4. Provide adequate system capacity.
5. Provide adequate system safety.
6. Provide adequate system reliability.
Related Standards:
1. The travel time by public transport between major activity centers not exceed 30

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minutes.
2. The travel time cost by public transport not to exceed 15% of travel cost of private
transport.
3. The frequency of public transport service on any route to be not less than 3 per hour.
4. The peak hour occupancy of public transport vehicles not exceed the permissible
limits.
5. Fatal accidents involving public transport vehicles to be less than 1% of the total.
6. At least 95% of public transport operation to be as per the published time schedule.

Definition of Study Area

Urban area
1. Population not less than 5,000.
2. Non-agricultural workers not less than 75% of the total workers.
3. Population density not less than 400 per sq. km.
Towns with population of 0.1 million and above are termed as cities.

Transportation Survey
The first stage in the formulation of a transportation plan is to collect data on all factors are
likely to influence travel pattern. The work involves a number of surveys so as to have:
1. An inventory of existing travel pattern.

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2. An inventory of existing transport facilities.
3. An inventory of existing land use and economic activities.
Definition of the Study Area
The study area for which transportation facilities are being planned is first of all defined.
Transportation planning can be at the national level, the regional level or at the urban area
level.
For planning at the urban level, the study area should embrace the whole contribution
containing the existing and potential continuously built up areas of the city. The imaginary
line representing the boundary of the study area is termed as the external cordon line
The area inside the external cordon line determines the travel pattern to a large extent and as
such, it is surveyed great detail. The land use pattern and the economic activities are studied
intensively and detailed survey (such as the home-interview) are conducted in this area to
determine the travel characteristics. On the other hand, the area outside the cordon line is not
studied in such details.
Selection of External Cordon Line
The selection of the external cordon line for urban transportation planning should be done
carefully with due to consideration to the following factors:
1. The external cordon line should circumscribe all areas, which are already built up, and
those areas, which are considered likely
to be developed during the planning
period.
2. The external cordon line should
contain all areas of systematic daily life
of the people
oriented towards the city center and
should in effect be the commuter shed.
3. The external cordon line should -be
continuous and uniform in its courses
so that
movements cross it only once. The line
should intersect roads where it is safe
and
convenient for carrying out traffic
survey.
4. The external cordon line should be
compatible with the previous studies of
the areas
studies planned for the future.

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Zoning
The defined study area is sub-divided into smaller areas called zones or traffic zones.
- The purpose of such a subdivision is to facilitate the spatial quantification of land use
and economic factors, which influence travel pattern. Subdivision into zones further
helps in geographically associating the origins and destinations of travel.
- Zones within the study area are called internal zones and those outside the study area
are called external zones.
- In large study projects, it is convenient to divide the study area into sectors, which are
sub divided into zones. Zones can themselves be sub divided into sub- zones
depending upon the type of land use.
- A convenient system of coding of the zones will be useful for the study. One such
system is to divide the study area into 9 sectors.
The central sector CBD is designated 0, and the remaining eight are designated from 1 to 8 in
clockwise manner. The prefix 9 is reserved for the external zones.
Each sector is subdivided into 10 zones bearing numbers from 0 to 9.
For ex.

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It would be helpful, if the following points are kept in view when dividing the area into
zones:
1. The zones should have a homogenous land use so as to reflect accurately the
associated trip making behavior.
2. Anticipated change in land use should be considered when sub- dividing the study area
into zones.
3. It would be advantages, if the subdivision follows closely that adopted by other bodies
( e.g. census department) for data collection. This will facilitate correlation of data.
4. The zones should not too large to cause considerable errors in data. At the sometime,
they should not be too small either to cause difficulty in handling and analyzing the
data.
As a general guide, a population of 1000-3000 may be the optimum for a small area,
and a population of 5000- 10000 may be the optimum for large urban areas. In
residential areas, the zones may accommodate roughly 1000 households.
5. The zones should preferably have regular geometric form for easily determining the
centroid, which represent the origin and destination of travel.
6. The sectors should represent the catchment of trips generated on a primary route.
7. Zones should be compatible with screen lines and cordon lines.
8. Zone boundaries should preferably be watersheds of trip making.
9. Natural or physical barriers such as canals, rivers, etc. can form convenient zone
boundaries.

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10. In addition to the external cordon lines, there may be a number of internal cordon
lines arranged as concentric rings to check the accuracy of survey data.
Screen lines
Running through the study area are also established to check the accuracy of data
collected from home- interview survey. Screen lines can be convenitally located along
physical or natural barriers having a few crossing points.
Examples of such barriers are river, railway lines, canals, etc.
Types of Movements
The basic movements for which survey data are required are:
1. Internal to internal.
2. External to internal.
3. Internal to external.
4. External to external.

For large urban areas, the internal to internal travel is heavy whereas for small areas having a
small population ( say less than 5000) the internal to internal travel is relatively less. Most
details of internal to internal travel can be obtained by home interview survey.
The details of internal- external, external internal and external- external travels can be
studied by cordon surveys.
Data Collection:
The data can be collected:
1. At home.
2. During the trip end.
3. At the destination of the trip.
When collected at home, the data can be wide ranging and can over all the trips made during
a given period. The data collected during the trip is necessary of limited scope since the
procedure yields data only on the particular trip intercepted.
At the destination end, the direct interview types of surveys provide data on demand for
parking facilities and or the trip ends at major traffic attraction centers such as factories,
offices and commercial establishments.

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The following are the surveys that are usually carried out:
1. Home- interview survey.
2. Commercial vehicles surveys.
3. Intermediate public transport surveys.
4. Public transport surveys.
5. Road –side – interview surveys.
6. Post- card- questioner surveys.
7. Registration- number surveys.
8. Tag- on- vehicle surveys.
The information to be collected from home-interview survey can be broadly classified in two
groups:
1. Household information.
2. Journey or trip data.
The household information needs to contain data with regard to:
a- Size of household.
b- Age of all the numbers of the households.
c- Sex.
d- Structure of households.
e- Employee.
f- Occupation.
g- Place of work.
h- No. of vehicles owned.
i- Household income.
Journey data will contain information all trips made during the previous 24hr. with regard to:
a. Origin and destination of trip.
b. Purpose of trip.
c. Modes of travel.
d. Time at start of trip.
e. Time at finish of trip.

Inventory of Transport Facilities

The inventory of existing transport facilities should be undertaken to identify the deficiencies
in the present system and the extent to which they need to be improved. The inventory
consists of:
- Inventory of streets forming the transport network.
Link → width length, no. of lanes.
Nodes → complete geometric of intersection.
- Traffic volume composition peak and off peak.
- Studies on travel time by different modes.
- Inventory of public transport buses.
- Inventory of rail transport facilities.

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- Parking inventory
- Accident data.
Inventory of Land Use and economic Activities
1. Inventory of Land Use
Since travel characteristics are closely related to the land use pattern, it is of utmost
important that an accurate inventory of land-use be prepared.
Data on intensity of usage of land for different purposes, such as residential, industrial,
commercial, recreational, open space, etc. in each of the traffic zones are to be
collected from concerned departments/ organization.
2. Inventory of Economic Activities
Aggregate data on demographic and socioeconomic activities should be collected
other sources to include the following:
- Population of the planning area and various zones.
- Age, sex, and composition of the family.
- Employment statistics.
- Housing statistics.
- Income.
- Vehicle ownership.
Transport Related Land-Use Models
Land –Use Transport Interaction
- Land development generates travel, and travel generates the need for new facilities,
which in turn increases accessibility and attracts further development.
- The question of whether transportation influences land –use ( development) or
whether land use dictates transportation has been a matter of ongoing concern among
transportation professionals.
- Thus, the connection between transportation and land use is a fundamental concept,
which needs to be understood clearly, in transportation planning as transportation and
land use are inexorably connected.
- Everything that happens to land use has transportation implications and every
transportation action affects land use.
- Transportation's most significant impact on land use development and more
development generates additional travel.
- Increased access to land raises its potential for development and more development
generates additional travel.
- One access has been provided land patterns begin to change over a period of time. The
results of these changes are, for the most part, irreversible.

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Selection of land use Transport Model

A variety of land – use transport models have been developed in the past 15 years. A few of
them are research models having excellent capabilities for sensitive forecasting, while some
are operational models. The former group of models require extensive data collected through
special surveys, whereas the latter need data which are collected routinely by planning
departments. The Lowery derivative models fall into the latter group and are very popular.
While selecting the model a number of consideration become important. These are:
1. Simplicity: the model should have a simple causal structure, which should be easy to
comprehend. A simple model will generally consume less of time and resources.
2. Modest data requirements: data requirements must be modest; in fact, some of the
good models make use of data routinely available with the planning department.
3. Adaptability: the model should be adaptable to any given location.
4. Comprehensiveness: the model should be comprehensive and should synthesis the
relationship between activities, housing and transportation adequately well.
5. Operationally and rapidity: the model should be operational, capable of easy
interpretation and should be able to test rapidly a wide range of policy options.
6. Computer cost: the model should be operational at relatively cheap computer cost.

1. Lowery Derivative Model

The Lowery derivative models have many of the above attributes. They are simple to use,
require modest data, are comprehensive and economical, have good response to change in

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input variables and have simple causal structure.
They have therefore been used extensively and successfully in a number of studies.
The fundamental structure of the model is illustrated in Figure (1):

The Lowery model relates the three principle components of the urban area:
1. Population.
2. Employment.
3. Communication between population and employment.

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Model Equation System
The Lowery model can be represented in terms of nine simultaneous equations and three
inequalities; the following notation will be used:
A= Area of land.
E= Employment ( number of persons).
N= Population (number of households).
T= Index of trip distribution.
Z= Constraints.
The following superscripts are used in conjunction with the above notation:
U= Unusable land.
B= Basic sector.
R= Retail sector.
H= Household sector.
k= Class of establishments within the retail sector ( groceries, clinics, primary schools, cloth
shop etc.).
m= Number of classes of retail establishment.
k=1, m
n= Number of zones( i=1,2,….n
j=1, 2,….n)

Land Use : the total land available in each zone and the land therein not useable by any of
the three activities are given. Thus:

Retail sector: retail sectors are divided into groups, each having its own characteristics
production function. The employment in each of the retail sector can be considered roughly
to be a function of the households in the region.

The distribution of this retail employment among the zones depend upon the market at each
location. Assuming that the shopping trips originate either from home to from work places,
the market potential of any given location can be defined as weighted index of the number of
households in the surrounding areas and the number of persons employed nearby. Thus:

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Total employment: the above procedure determines the amount of employment in any zone
for each category of retail trade. The sum of these employment figures, plus the quantity of
basic employment allocated to the zone is the total employment for the zone. Thus:

Household Sector: the region's population of household is a function of total employment.

Thus:

the population living in any zone j is also a function of the employment opportunities in the
different zones and the measure of accessibility from zone j to each of these zones. Thus:

The coefficient factor f is a scale factor.

The sum of zone population must equal to the total population of the region :

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In order to prevent the system from generating excessive population densities in locations
with high accessibility indices, a maximum density constraints is imposed. The value of this
constraint (number of households per unit area of residential space) may vary from zone to
zone, as would be the case under zoning ordinances.

And lastly , the amount of land set aside of retail establishments must not exceed the amount
available.

This constraint also prevents the assignment of negative value to the residential land.

2. Hansen’s Accessibility Model

It is designed to predict the location of population based on the premise that
employment is the predominant factor in determining location. He suggested the use
of an accessibility index, Aij, where

The amount of vacant land that is suitable and available for residential use is also
an additional factor in attracting future population to the zone in question. This is
j referred to as holding capacity (Hi). The development potential of a zone Di is,
therefore,

And population is distributed to zones on the basis of the relative development potential

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If the total growth factor in population in a future year is Gt, the population
allocated to zone i will be

3. Density-Saturation Gradient Method

This Density-Saturation Gradient (DSG) Method was first used in Chicago Area
Transportation Study (CATS), since then, many researchers have elaborated on this basic
work.
Three empirical rules are used in this method:
1- The intensity of land use declines as the distance or travel time to the CBD
increases.
2- The ratio of the amount of land in use to the amount of available land decreases as
distance from the CBD increases.
3- The proportion of land devoted to each type of land use in an area remains stable.
Clark derived the basic equation for expressing this density-distance relationship.
The basic equation:

Clark made another assumption that is not dealt with by the density equation. He
assumed that the higher downtown densities and the lower suburban densities will tend to
equalize over time in most urban areas. This is supported by the findings of the most recent
census, which indicate strong trends of population decline in the CBD and increased
population movement toward peripheral and suburban areas. This observation implies that
the density-saturation gradient is a function of age or regional location of the city and can
be determined experimentally.
Holding capacity is given by the following expression:

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The general procedure can be described as follows:

1- Establish the relationship between residential density and the distance from the
CBD.
2- Determine the percent population saturation for each zone and aggregate this
percentage by ring and sector
3- Determine the percentage area of useful available land in each zone that has been
earmarked for residential use. This percentage, known as the percentage
residential saturation, is plotted against distance from the CBD.
4- Obtain the total population for the forecast year for the city. This figure is
determined exogenously.
5- Plot a curve representing the residential density, similar to the one plotted under
step 2, such that the area under the curve is proportional to the total population
6- Forecast population totals by analysis rings. These totals are determined by scaling
off appropriate ordinate values from the horizon-year curve.
7- Distribute ring totals to individual zones by subjectively weighting each individual
zone's attractiveness according to such factors as distance to shopping centers,
distance to major street systems or bus lines, residential capacity, nearness to
school, and so on.

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