Electronic computer applications in urban transportation planning

The transportation planning process is a set of analytical techniques used to forecast future transportation requirements and to evaluate proposed systems. While some of the techniques described in this paper can be used in the solution of current problems, the primary concern is with the problems of long-range planning. The following sections of this paper describe a transportation planning process. The process described is one that is widely (but not exclusively) used for urban transportation studies in the United States. This collection of survey techniques, analysis methods, and computer programs which makes up the process, has been developed over the past two decades by hundreds of researchers from diverse fields. This research and planning activity has been supported by the communities for which studies have been made, state highway departments, the Bureau of Public Roads, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. While improvements in the methodology continue to be made, and are necessary if better techniques are to be developed, the process seems to have been somewhat standardized in the form presented.