Abstract

Methodology and Automation in Estimating Area Type for Transportation Modeling
Track: Transportation
Authors: Petya Maneva, Wang Zhang

The intensity of economic development is often used to estimate the capacity and free flow travel speed in a travel demand model.

The presentation describes creating and implementing a methodology to delineate area type polygons and the subsequent incorporation of the area type at the line segment level for the modeled transportation network. A seamless integration of ESRI ArcInfo, Python and Caliper's GISDK allows the user to automatically assign area type to roadway segments based on the land use and socio-economic characteristics of the surrounding territory.

The procedure determines the economic intensity for each transportation analysis zone and creates a centroid for the developed land. A raster type intensity surface is generated, reclassified and converted into area type polygons. Transportation network links are then automatically assigned area types based on their geographic location. The application is easy to customize and can leverage additional GIS data if appropriate.