Urban Transportation Planning

Urban Transportation Planning
Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

Why Functional classification is important?
• It is a method of communication among Engineers, Administrators,

and the General public.

Functional Classification
• It is the grouping of highways by the character of service they

provide, and it was developed for transportation planning purposes.
• It is an importatnt planning tool, and it is considered as the

predominant method of grouping of highways

Hierarchies of movement and Components
• The complete functional design system provides a series of distinct

movements.
• There are 6 recognizable stages in most trips:
– Main movement (Principal arterials such as freeways: high

efficiency and mobility) (V1)
– Transition (ramps, loops) (V2)
– Distribution (moderate speed arterial) (V3)
– Collection (penetrate neighborhoods) (V4)
– Access (direct approaches to individual residences or other
termination) (V5)
– Termination (parking) (V6)
Movement heirarchy is based on the total amount of traffic volume
The Cross Bronx Expressway in New York, United States

Highway 401 in Southern Ontario, Canada. An example of a collector-express freeway design,
the route features four carriageways throughToronto
Highway Functional Classification
1. Land access roads: provide access to property, traffic volume is low
2. Collectors: provide access to higher type roads, these include

primary highways and secondary urban arterial highways and other
collector roads.

Highway Functional Classification
3. Major Arterial: provide primarily for relatively high volumes of traffic

between population centers, this includes primary state highways
and major urban arterial highways
4. Freeways: they connect large population centers, carrying heavy

volumes of traffic, long distance in and around metropolitan area,
provide no access to abutting property

Freeway
Driveway
Local
Collector
Arterial

Functional Classification
• Thus functional classification groups streets and highways

according to the service they are intended to provide.
• Inividual roads and streets do not serve travel independently.

Definition of Urban and Rural Areas
• Urban and rural functional systems are

classified separately since they have different
characteristics with regards to:
– Density and types of land use

– Density of street and highway networks
– Nature and travel patterns
– The way these elements are related

Definition of Urban and Rural
Areas
• Urban Areas:
 Places within boundaries set by the

responsible agencies/officials within the
country having a population of ≥ 5,000
Urbanized areas
≥ 50,000
Urban

Small urban areas
5,000<pop<50,000
Definition of Urban and Rural
Areas
• Rural Areas:
Those areas outside the boundaries of urban

areas

Functional Systems for rural and
Urban areas
• Generally, the heirarchy of the functional systems consists
of:
1. Principal arterials (for main movemets)

2. Minor arterials (distributers)
3. Collectors
4. Local roads and streets
In general,
 In urban areas there are relatively more arterials

 In rural areas there are more collectors
• Trip Phases
– origination (driveway)
– access (local road)
– collection (collector)
– transition (ramp)
– main movement (arterial highway)
– transition (ramp)
– distribution (collector)
– access (local road)
– termination (driveway)

Hierarchy of Movements and Roads
Major
Your friend’s Highway
Termination
house (driveway)
Local
Roads &
Streets
Access
(local)
Distribution
(collector)
Main movement
(arterial)
Collection
(collector)
Access
(local)
Origination Your house

(driveway)
Urban Transportation Planning Process (UTP)
Consists of 9 steps
1. Coding and Zoning
2. Inventory Studies (land use, socio-economic characteristics, link

volume, link capacity, travel time)
3. Travel Studies (OD surveys)
4. Forecasts for the Horizontal Year (for design year estimates for:
population, employment, land use, economic &social activity)
5. Trip General Analysis
6. Trip Distribution Analysis
7. Modal Split Analysis
8. Network Assignment Analysis
9. Evaluation (alternatives are compared based on system

performance & environmental impact)
Urban transportation (demand) forecasting process
This task is a technical effort to analyze the performance of various alternatives.

We must define the study area first. Then further subdivide the area into traffic
(analysis) zone, TAZ, for data tabulation and analysis.
Homogeneous socioeconomic characteristics: e.g., high-income

residential
Minimum intra-zonal trips
Use of physical, political, and historical boundaries, where possible
Zones, once created, should not be subdivided into smaller zones
during analysis
Zones generating and attracting approximately equal trips,
households, population, or area
Use of census tract boundaries, where possible (easier to collect data
from the Census Bureau’s publications)
Origin-Destination Data
 household characteristics 
 no. of persons who live there
 no. of cars
 occupation of the head
 income etc.
 Location of the origin and destination of the trip (where trips begin &
end)
 Time at trip started & ended (when trips begin & end)
 Mode & route of travel
 Purpose of trip
Travel
demand
model
flowchart
Four basic elements of the urban transportation forecasting process
Data collection Economic activity (employment, sales volume, income,

(population, land etc.), land use (type, intensity), travel characteristics (trip
use, etc.) and traveler profile), and transportation facilities (capacity,
travel speed, etc.), population and demography, Origin-
destination trip data.
Analysis of existing Analyze the data collected in the data collection stage. You
conditions and may build mathematical models describe the existing
calibration conditions and then use the relationships you have found
in the existing parameters to forecast future values.
Forecast of future 4-step transportation demand forecasting process
travel demand (Aggregate Sequential Demand Models)
Analysis of the Analyze what you get from the 4-stop demand forecasting
results process
Analysis zones for transportation study (TAZ)
on average, one zone per 1,000 people

Link-node map for highway system
• Link-node maps are the starting point for the 4-step

transportation demand forecasting process
4-step transportation demand forecasting
process
• Preparation: population and economic analysis
and land use analysis
Trip generation Determines how many trips each activity (center) (residential
area, commercial area, etc) will produce or attract
Trip distribution Determines the origin or destination of trips that are

generated at a given activity
Modal split Determines which mode of transportation will be used to

make the trip
Traffic Determines which route on the transportation network will be

assignment used when making the trip
Graphical way of understanding the 4-step
demand forecasting process
200 trips from

zone 46 to
zone 29
1000 trips
attracted
1000 trips
generated
70% this route

Auto total: 95% Public transit: 5%
25% this route
Transportation Demand Forecasting
• A) TRIP GENERATION:
• Trip generation analysis has two functions:
– (1) to develop a relationship between trip end production or

attraction and land use
– (2) to use the relationship to estimate the number of trips
generated at some future date under a new set of land use
conditions.

Trip purposes normally defined:
1. Home-based work (HBW)

2. Home-based other (HBO)
3. Non-home based (NHB)

Transportation Demand Forecasting
• Cross-Classification: to determine the number of trips that begin or

end at the home
• The first step is to develop a relationship between socioeconomic

measures and trip production.
• The two variables most commonly used are average income and
auto ownership.
• Other variables that could be considered are household size and

stage in the household life cycle.

 Example: A travel survey produced the data shown in
Table
Based on the data
provided, develop
a set of curves
showing the
number of trips per
household versus
income and auto
Ownership?

=2/3=0.67

• Step 2: the average number of trips per
household versus income and cars owned.
=(2+4)/2 =5/1
=6+6+6/3

 Step 3: additional O-D data (not shown in Table 12.1)
can be used to determine the percentage of trips by each
trip purpose for each income category.

• Step 1: Determine the percentage of households in each economic category

• Step 2: Determine the distribution of auto ownership per household for each
income category.

• Step 3: Determine the number of trips per household per day for
each income – auto ownership category.

• Table 12.4 shows that 58% of medium-income families own one
auto per household.
• Also, from the previous step, we know that a zone, with an average
income of $44,000, contains 40% of households in the medium-
income category.

• A likely result of the trip generation process is that the number of trip
productions may not be equal to the number of trip attractions.
• Trip productions, which are based on census data, are considered to

be more accurate than trip attractions.
• trip attractions are usually modified so that they are equal to trip
productions.

Rates Based on Activity Units
• Trips generated at the household end are referred to as productions,

and they are attracted to zones for purposes such as work,
shopping, visiting friends, and medical trips.
• An activity unit can be described by measures such as square feet

of floor space or number of employees.

• Rate: it refers to the number of trips per day per activity center.

The factor to balance trip productions/attractions= total prod./total attr.
The same procedure is followed for HBO

• 1. Multiply by the factor (total prod./total attr.)
• 2. The productions are to be equal to attractions

B) TRIP DISTRIBUTION:
• is a process by which the trips generated in one zone are allocated

to other zones in the study area.
• These trips may be within the study area (internal-internal) or

between the study area and areas outside the study area (internal-
external)
• For example, if the trip generation analysis results in an estimate of

200 HBW trips in zone 10, then the trip distribution analysis would
determine how many of these trips would be made between zone 10
and all the other zones.

• Several basic methods are used for trip distribution. Among these
are the gravity model

• Gravity Model: states that the number of trips between two zones is
directly proportional to the number of trip attractions generated
by the zone of destination and inversely proportional to a
function of time of travel between the two zones.

gravitational constant = 6.67398 × 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2

Gravity Model:
The values of Pi and Aj have been determined in the trip generation

process.
The sum of Pi for all zones must equal the sum of Aj for all zones.
Attr.
Prod.


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Urban Transportation Planning

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

• It is a method of communication among Engineers, Administrators,

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

• It is the grouping of highways by the character of service they

• It is an importatnt planning tool, and it is considered as the

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

• The complete functional design system provides a series of distinct

• There are 6 recognizable stages in most trips:

– Main movement (Principal arterials such as freeways: high

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

1. Land access roads: provide access to property, traffic volume is low

2. Collectors: provide access to higher type roads, these include

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

3. Major Arterial: provide primarily for relatively high volumes of traffic

4. Freeways: they connect large population centers, carrying heavy

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

• Thus functional classification groups streets and highways

• Inividual roads and streets do not serve travel independently.

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

• Urban and rural functional systems are

– Density and types of land use

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

 Places within boundaries set by the

Those areas outside the boundaries of urban

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

1. Principal arterials (for main movemets)

 In urban areas there are relatively more arterials

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

Origination Your house

1. Coding and Zoning

2. Inventory Studies (land use, socio-economic characteristics, link

3. Travel Studies (OD surveys)

5. Trip General Analysis

6. Trip Distribution Analysis

7. Modal Split Analysis

8. Network Assignment Analysis

9. Evaluation (alternatives are compared based on system

This task is a technical effort to analyze the performance of various alternatives.

Homogeneous socioeconomic characteristics: e.g., high-income

Data collection Economic activity (employment, sales volume, income,

on average, one zone per 1,000 people

• Link-node maps are the starting point for the 4-step

Trip distribution Determines the origin or destination of trips that are

Modal split Determines which mode of transportation will be used to

Traffic Determines which route on the transportation network will be

200 trips from

70% this route

• Trip generation analysis has two functions:

– (1) to develop a relationship between trip end production or

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

1. Home-based work (HBW)

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

• Cross-Classiﬁcation: to determine the number of trips that begin or

• The ﬁrst step is to develop a relationship between socioeconomic

• Other variables that could be considered are household size and

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli

Dr. Randa Oqab Mujalli