| Abstract |
More often than not, today's urban transportation planner is being asked to determine the consequences of not making a certain transportation investment rather than to determine what investments need to be made to meet the otherwise unconstrained demand for transport services. By simplifying and achieving a degree of standardization in travel estimation procedures, benefits could accrue to the user nations in the form of time and cost savings as well as broadening the spectrum of conditions under which the forecasting procedure can be expected to operate. The first benefit could result from the application of a less sophisticated, and therefore less costly, forecasting procedure. The latter benefit could result in a cross fertilization of knowledge regarding the consequences of various policy decisions. North American cities can be characterized as relatively low in density, high in auto ownership, and low to moderate in public transit usage. European cities, on the other hand, are generally higher in density, lower in auto ownership, and demonstrate a correspondingly higher transit usage. Under these circumstances, the desirability of a generalized simple and efficient forecasting procedure, suitable for application to a broad range of conditions has become greatly heightened. |
