Review of Travel Data Issues in VDOT's Transportation Planning Division

About the report:

The Transportation Planning Division (TPD) of the Virginia Department of Transportation uses an extensive amount of travel data in both its routine planning activities and its provision of data forecasts to other divisions. Travel data consist of such items as 24-hour and peak hour volume counts, turning movement counts, origin and destination surveys, occupancy counts, and vehicle classification counts. These data are expensive to obtain because of the personnel required and the cost of the data collection equipment. Accordingly, TPD requested that a· study be undertaken to inventory and review its use of travel data, review the method of data collection and their usage, identify issues regarding travel data, and recommend changes in data collection or usage. Changes were formulated in the context of reducing the amount or level of data needed, streamlining data collection, and utilizing data more efficiently. The research was conducted in two phases. The first phase included three specific tasks: an inventory of TPD's travel data requirements, the categorization of the travel data, and the identification of issues for further investigation. Phase II consisted of an investigation of each of the identified issues. Based on the findings of Phase 1,17 issues concerning travel data that had a potential for savings were identified. Primarily because of their scope, some issues were not investigated under this project; they will be investigated in an upcoming project scheduled for FY 1992. Results from the investigation of the other issues are described in this report.

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