SYLLABUS

USP 587: Introduction to Travel Demand Modeling

Winter 2007, Thursdays, 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Room 225 Urban Center (URB)
Travel Demand Modeling Lab: 5th floor of Urban Center
NEW Open Lab Hours:
Mon 6 to 8 p.m.
Tue/Thu 7 to 9 p.m.
Instructor: John Gliebe
Office hours: Thursdays, 1 to 3 p.m., or by appointment
e-mail: gliebej@pdx.edu
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon completing this course students should have a solid understanding of the theory and
methods underlying the practice of urban travel demand modeling. Travel demand modeling has
historically been portrayed as a four-step process; however, it actually involves many more
steps, particularly if done thoughtfully. State-of-the-art modeling concepts and techniques will
also be introduced.
A variety of computer application packages, database programs, scripting languages, and
statistical software are available for travel demand modeling application and development, and
students will receive limited instruction in a handful of these tools. The emphasis in this course,
however, will be on the more enduring non-software-specific lessonstheory, methods, and
analytical problem solvingwhich are common to the discipline.
At the end of this course, students should be able to answer the following questions:
How are travel demand models used in the field of transportation planning?
In the context of urban transportation planning, what modeling methods are available for
the analysis of human activity patterns and travel-related decision making?
What sources of data are needed for model development?
What are the behavioral and statistical limitations posed by the data?
What are the effects of data aggregation bias and how does it relate to market
stratification?
How are the temporal and spatial dimensions of travel represented in model design?
What do model structure and variable specification imply about behavioral sensitivity?
How does the need to produce forecasts drive model design and specification?
How are the economic concepts of equilibrium, utility, elasticity, and value of time
represented in travel demand modeling?
What are the basic methods used to estimate and calibrate models?
What methods may be used to validate travel demand models?

TEXT AND COURSE WEBSITE

There is one required textbook for the class, with additional readings handed out by the instructor
in class and via the course website. The textbook we will be using is Modelling Transport, 3rd
Edition, by Juan de Dios Ortuzar and Luis G. Willumsen. The course web site will include this
syllabus, supplemental reading materials, assignments, and a class email message forum. Lecture
notes will also be posted on the website after each lecture. The website may be accessed by
directing your web browser to http://www.psuonline.pdx.edu/ and logging on using your ODIN
account name and password.
STRUCTURE OF THE COURSE
This course will be a combination of lectures, computer lab work, individual homework
assignments, and a final project. In addition, there will be a mid-term exam covering the first six
weeks of class.
Attached is a weekly schedule of class lecture topics, assignments, and deadlines. Note that
there will be no class on January 25, 2007, so that the instructor and students may attend the
Transportation Research Boards annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Lectures will cover the topics listed in the outline. While most of the material is covered
adequately in the textbook, additional readings will be be distributed either in class or via
the WebCT class website.
Lab Tutorials will involve relatively short un-graded exercises designed to familiarize
you with relevant software to be used for the homework assignments and final projects.
In addition, there will be an optional tutorial offered for review of relevant mathematics
and statistics. Each tutorial should take about one hour.
Homework Assignments will involve completing analytical exercises designed to build
skills in travel demand modeling and to reinforce concepts discussed in the class lectures
They are to be completed individually. Each assignment will consist of numerical
analysis and presented in a memo summarizing the results. Additional instructions will
be provided with each assignment.
Final Project will be a more lengthy and comprehensive homework assignment, covering
multiple modeling methods. Final projects may be done in groups and will be presented
during the final class meeting during Finals Week.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Grading will be as follows:

Five Homework assignments:

Final project:
Mid-Term Exam:
Class participation:

40%
25%
25%
10%

Tentative Course Outline Winter 2007

USP 587: Introduction to Travel Demand Modeling

Week 1: January 11, 2007

Course overview
Overview of travel demand modeling history and practice
Economic concepts in travel demand modeling
Transportation modeling structural representation and terminology
Assignments: Read Ortuzar and Willumsen, Chs. 1 and 3 (Ch. 2 optional) for Week 2
Lab Tutorial: Introduction to VISUM: transportation zones and networks
Week 2: January 18, 2007
Travel behavior patterns and terminology
Data sources and sample space
Aggregation issues
Market segmentation
Analysis of variance
Assignments: Read Ortuzar and Willumsen, Ch. 4 for Week 4
Homework 1. See Week 4
Lab Tutorial: Math and statistics review (optional)
Introduction/review of SPSS (optional)
Week 3: January 25, 2007
Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, DC Class Cancelled
Week 4: February 1, 2007
Trip generation modeling: productions and attractions
Cross classification
Linear regression
Tour-based concepts
Assignments: Read Ortuzar and Willumsen, Ch. 5 for Week 5
Homework 2. Data exploration & trip generation exercises (due
02/15/07)
Lab Tutorial: Introduction to JEMnR and R
Week 5: February 8, 2007
Trip distribution modeling: gravity models
Inter-zonal cost skims
Iterative proportional fitting
Calibration methods
Comparing distributions

Assignments: Read Ortuzar and Willumsen, Chs. 6 and 7 for Week 6

Homework 3. Trip distribution exercises (due 02/22/07)
Lab Tutorial: More on VISUM
Week 6: February 15, 2007
Introduction to discrete choice methods
Mode choice modeling
Composite utilities
Destination choice models
Assignments: Read Ortuzar and Willumsen, Ch. 10 for Week 7
Homework 4. Mode choice exercises (due 03/01/07)
Lab Tutorial: Running JEMnR with VISUM
Week 7: February 22, 2007
External trips, trucks, diurnal factors, and trip table construction
Transportation network models
Volume-delay functions
Finding shortest-paths
Assignment algorithms
Network equilibrium concepts
Assignments: Study for Mid-Term on Week 8
Homework 5. Network assignment using VISUM (due 03/08/07)
In-Lab:
Homework 5
Week 8: March 1, 2007
Mid-Term covering topics from Weeks 1 to 6
Assignments: Read Ortuzar and Willumsen, Ch. 11 for Week 9
Final Project. 4-step modeling problem (due 03/22/07)
In-Lab:
Work on Final Project
Week 9: March 8, 2007
Review of mid-term
System equilibrium concepts
Feedback methods
Peak spreading
Validation and consistency checking
Assignments: Read Ortuzar and Willumsen, Ch. 13 for Week 10
In-Lab:
Work on Final Projects

Week 10: March 15, 2007

Model system design issues
Forecasting methods
Scenario management
Special topics: land use, freight, airports, visitors, special generators
Assignments: Finish final projects for presentation on Week 11
In-Lab:
Work on Final Projects
Week 11: March 22, 2007 FINALS WEEK
Presentation of final projects
Class wrap-up