TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN URBAN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING INFORMATION SYSTEM

Databases that have been created for use in urban transportation studies describe the urban environment for only one point in time. With the exception of simple manual techniques, no provision has been made for the updating of these planning databases on a continuing basis.; Therefore, the objective of this research was the design and implementation of a computerized information system capable of supporting the continuing socioeconomic data requirements for the travel demand forecasting phase of the urban transportation planning process. Agency operating and administrative records from both state and local government serve as system input. The system performs a geographical analysis which determines the home base locations for these records and hence the data that they contain. Subsequent to this geographical analysis, the system aggregates the data on a small area basis required by the travel demand models in the planning process.; Data confidentiality requirements established by law for certain socioeconomic data led to the development of a mathematical model which predicts the income variable. The model is based on harmonic analysis and is specified as a Fourier series.; A secondary research objective was the development of a standardized calibration technique for category models which are used for travel demand estimation. This calibration technique utilizes the dummy variable regression method.; It has been concluded that the transportation planning information system developed during the course of this research is capable of synthesizing on a small area basis, the demographic and employment data used in the transportation planning process for urban study areas with populations less than 500,000. This conclusion is supported by the findings from system implementation and testing in Greensboro, North Carolina.