Lead Presenter Biography

Sean is a Principal with Cambridge Systematics and has 20 years of experience in model development and application. Focus areas include implementation of complex models, model user interface development, and communication of complex model results to a less technical audience. He has contributed to travel models throughout the US for large metropolitan areas such as New York City, as well as small and medium communities such as Jackson, WY and the Colorado North Front Range.

Co-Authors

Presentation Description

The City of Irvine, CA uses a travel demand model to evaluate proposed developments within the city. This includes intersection and link level of service, traffic volumes, and generated VMT. A wide variety of consultants, engineers, and developers reference travel model results, leading to the need for a consistent and user friendly method of collecting and displaying model outputs.
To support this need Irvine has developed a web-based dashboard that displays model results in an intuitive and accessible manner. Each model run produces a standalone web page that contains the most commonly accessed model results. It includes:

• An Interactive Map that allows users to select individual links and view attributes such as traffic volumes, counts, and level of service.
• A Labeled Map that allows users to scan the network and view information such as number of lanes, traffic volumes, and link level of service. The labeled map uses dynamically updated color themes that visually identify relevant attributes.
• An Intersection Map that displays each intersection in the city along with modeled level of service. Users can view more detailed information including turning movement counts, raw modeled volumes, and post processed model volumes. The map also includes embedded intersection level of service reports that allow quick access to information useful to traffic engineers regarding intersection capacity issues.

These maps provide data viewing capabilities similar to that found in travel demand modeling packages or GIS platforms, but are designed to allow users quick access to commonly referenced information. Users do not need to learn special software, and the dashboard is produced automatically each time the model is run. There is not separate step to upload results to a third party hosting site. This is particularly important when dealing with travel model application for development review, as the model is made available to numerous parties who can run the model then share and evaluate results using this tool.
Mapping is implemented in JavaScript using the open source Leaflet library. Background tiles are loaded from OpenStreetMap, but can be replaced with a mapping provider of choice using Leaflet’s built-in flexibility.
This dashboard provides highly customized intersection information, including turning movement diagrams and intersection capacity utilization (ICU) calculation sheets. Intersection turning movements are displayed using a purpose-built library that generates diagrams with street names, volumes, and arrows indicating movements. A toggle function allows the user to switch between number of lanes and volumes.
Planned improvements to the mapping tool include additional model results and summary tables, tools that facilitate direct comparison of model scenarios, and integration of the city’s traffic count database. While the dashboard’s current implementation as a standalone file that can be exchanged via email or stored as needed on users’ computers is an important feature, a hosted option that provides a centralized repository of model scenarios and results is also being explored. 

Presentation File