Transportation Planning II

Comprehensive Transportation
Planning Process
Lecture 1
 Planning
Basic Definitions
Planning;
“Processes involved in the creation of solutions and goal-oriented concepts
particularly with regard to the future” (Encyclopedic Dictionary of Landscape and
Urban Planning)
Effective planning covers a number of different processes:
• “identifying the vision, goals or objectives to be achieved,
• formulating the strategies needed to achieve the vision and goals,
• determining and allocating the resources (financial and other) required to achieve
the vision and goals,
• outlining implementation arrangements, which include the arrangements for
monitoring and evaluating progress towards achieving the vision and goals” (UNDP
2009
Planning Process
 URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING
• Urban planning is the design and regulation of the uses of space that
focus on the physical form, economic functions, and social impacts of
the urban environment and on the location of different activities within
an urban area (city or town) (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015).
• Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use
activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of
land than an individual city or town. Some of the element of regional
planning includes: Restricting development in wetlands and protected
ecosystems, Planning for new transport infrastructure, Use of land use
zoning system, laws and policies etc.
• A region is an area, especially a part of a country or the world having
definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries e.g. Rift
valley, Nairobi Metro, Least developed regions
 Planning
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PLANNING: Public institutions, such as
- state ministries (for large scale regional planning)_Ministry of
devolution and planning - regional authorities (e.g. district
governments). The planner can be a staff member of a public
planning agency or a private consultancy firm (as a contractor of a
public agency
STAKEHOLDERS: A stakeholder is a person, group or organization
who/which affects or can be affected by a plan
• The “key players” are;
- the responsible public agency (for making the plan)
- other public authorities
- private firms and persons such as environmentalists
 Transportation Planning
Planning is the process of deciding what to do and how to do it.

Effective planning allows people’s needs, preferences and values to be reflected in

decisions.

Planning occurs at many different levels, from day-to-day decisions made by

individuals and families, to major decisions made by governments and businesses
that have comprehensive, long-term impacts on society.
 
A basic principle of good planning is that individual, short-term decisions are
coordinated in order to support strategic, long-term objectives.

Comprehensive planning should allow transportation, land use, economic

development and social planning decisions to be coordinated.

The overall goal of transportation planning should be to create a better,

more prosperous and more sustainable place.
 Transportation Planning
• The process of transportation planning entails
developing a transportation plan for an urban
region.
• It is an ongoing process that seeks to address
the transport needs of the inhabitants of the
area, and with the aid of a process of
consultation with all relevant groups, strives to
identify and implement an appropriate plan to
meet these needs.
 Transportation Planning Process
• Define problem
• Define goals and criteria
• Collect data
• Forecasting (modeling)
• Develop alternatives
• Evaluate
• Finalize an implementation plan
• Monitoring
 The Planning Process under Comprehensive
Transport Planning
• The techniques of comprehensive transport planning aside, the process,
is similar in both urban and rural contexts.
1. Asses the present transportation situation, together with financial and
existing policy constraints on possible future action.
2. Identify future problems. (There is always a possibility that the best
thing to do is nothing)
3. Consider the time-scale for problem solution
4. Develop alternative possible solutions
5. Finally, transport planning is not a finite exercise. Planning decisions for
the next few years may be irreversible but those for the medium-term may
provide scope for reconsideration.
• Transport planning is a continuous process — it needs continuous
attention.
 Comprehensive Transportation Planning

The CTP is a multi-modal plan that identifies the

existing and future transportation system, including
highways, public transportation, rail, bicycle, and
pedestrian facilities needed to serve the current and
anticipated travel demand. The CTP process has
additional emphasis on being environmentally and
community friendly. It strengthens the connections
between an area’s transportation plan, adopted
local land development plan, and community vision.
 Multimodal transportation planning
• The process of defining problems, identifying alternatives, evaluation
potential solutions and selection preferred actions that meet community
goals in a manner that includes all feasible transportation modes (Meyer,
1993)
 Comprehensive Transportation Planning
Aims
• Optimum movement of people and goods.
• Optimization of the balance between the uses of the different modes
and transport faciliies: It allows communities to consider all modes,
not just road improvements, for the future transportation system.
Develop integrated packages of public transport, private car restraint,
and the optimum use of both existing and new roads.
• To identify and avoid or minimize impacts to the human and natural
environment: It is more environmentally sound through the early and
explicit consideration of environmental resources
• To supports community-adopted vision and goals by integrating land
use and transportation planning ： Allow transportation, land use,
economic development and social planning decisions to be coordinated.
• More accountability to the public through the formal public
involvement process.
Source: Transportation Planning C A O’Flaherty
 Comprehensive Transportation Planning: Pre-Analysis
Phase

The pre-analysis phase:

• Identifies Problems
• Formulates Goals
• Generates Alternatives
Some aspects of problem-identification are simple exercises in measurement.
How long is the wait at a traffic signal? How bad is the air quality at certain
times of day on certain corridors? The difficult part comes in weighing the
relative importance of these problems. Without an organized and
comprehensive effort to get some feedback from the USERS of the
transportation network, any analysis of the relative importance of problems
and the overall goals of any solution is, at best, an educated guess.
 Technical Analysis (Modeling) Phase
• The most widely used process for analyzing the impacts of
transportation policies is through the Urban Transportation Model
System. The UTMS is also known as the "Four-Step" model, which
accurately describes the process of forecasting transportation within
an area or region.
• While the mathematics of this forecasting procedure can be very
complex, the process that the model represents is very
straightforward and actually very intuitive.
• The result of the model is a tool with which to see into the future,
find out where the problems will arise with the current system,
and analyze alternative hypothetical changes to the system to see
how they will work, and which of them might be the most cost-
effective.
 Technical Analysis Phase (Four Step
Modelling)
Trip Generation How much travel is being Producing trips based on the number of people living in a zone
generated by each of the and some assumptions about their general habits as they go
sub-areas in the region about going to work, shopping, picking up the kids, etc.; and
(often called TAZ’s or Attracting trips based on the “activity generators” that may be
traffic analysis zones)?“ located in a zone, such as a major place of employment, or a
shopping center that might attract trips to the grocery store.

Trip Distribution "Where are those trips This is determined by a number of factors. One factor is how
going?" attractive a zone is to travelers, or how accessible that zone is
with respect to the number of activities that can be conducted
there.

Modal Split "What mode of this prediction is split between automobiles and transit
transportation is being
used by the travelers?"
Network "By what route are these The choice of which route to take is influenced by a number of
Assignment trips traveling from one different factors such as time of day, weather conditions,
place to another?" street conditions and characteristics, and perceived safety.
 Post Analysis Phase
In the post analysis phase:
• Evaluation of Alternatives
• Decision-Making on the best alternative
• Financing and Implementation
• Monitoring
Urban Transportation Planning Process
 References for this Course
1. Highway Engineering, Martin Rogers
2. Urban Transportation Planning, Micheal D. Meyer,
Eric J. Miller
3. Transportation Planning and Traffic engineering C A
O’Flaherty