Evaluation and Testing of Regional Models - Phase I: Sensitivity Analysis, Task B

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC), an association of governments, transportation providers, and environmental organizations, handles the metropolitan transportation planning throughout New York City, Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley. In the early 1990s, NYMTC developed a transportation model, the New York Best Practices Model (NYBPM), in response to federal regulations on surface planning, specifically the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and the Clean Air Act (CAA). The NYBPM was created to analyze adjusting traffic patterns due to changes within demographic agendas and other changes in transportation systems in the area, and has become a very valuable tool to planners. The purpose of the work presented in this report is to test and demonstrate the capabilities of NYMTC's Best Practices Model for policy analysis in the New York Metropolitan Region, through peer reviewed sensitivity analysis. The scenarios that were selected for this set of sensitivity tests examine and demonstrate the utility of the NYBPM as a tool for policy analysis by looking at a detailed level at how the model responds to network or policy changes. The first scenario that was tested (B1) showed the impact of truck demand changes on the network. The purpose of testing this scenario was to show the zonal and link-level effects on passenger travel on the major corridors into Manhattan as the level of traffic rises on the network. The second scenario that was tested (B2) showed the impact of tolling policy changes on a major link of the network. For this scenario several changes in tolling policies on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge were tested and the impacts these changes had on other NYC crossings were analyzed. The third scenario that was tested (B3) showed the impacts of a disruption of infrastructure on the network. This scenario tests how travel choices change at the facility level if the capacity of a bridge is reduced due to construction, maintenance, or unplanned events.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Title on the Technical Report Standard Title Page is: "Evaluation and Testing of Regional Models: Sensitivity Analysis (Part II)." This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation

  Rutgers University
  100 Brett Road
  Piscataway, NJ  United States  08854-8058

  University Transportation Research Center

  City College of New York
  Marshak Hall, Suite 910, 160 Convent Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10031

  New York Metropolitan Transportation Council

  199 Water Street
  New York, NY  United States  10038

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Boile, Maria
  • Theofanis, Sotirios
  • Golias, Mihalis
  • Dougherty, Patrick
• Publication Date: 2010-5-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 151p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Best practices; Evaluation and assessment; Policy analysis; Regional transportation; Sensitivity analysis; Transportation policy
• Identifier Terms: New York Metropolitan Transportation Council
• Geographic Terms: New York Metropolitan Area
• Subject Areas: Highways; Policy; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01322461
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: 55657-02-19
• Files: UTC, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Dec 15 2010 8:52AM