Evaluating the efficiency of transportation services on intermodal commuter networks

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 and its successor, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), changed the scope of the transportation planning process from evaluating new regional transportation facilities to developing strategies which promote more efficient use of the existing transportation infrastructure, and created a need for new and improved analytical tools to be used in the analysis and evaluation of intermodal networks. Transportation plans that are developed must consider a range of transportation options designed to meet the transportation needs of a state including all modes and their connections. Transportation planners need to investigate programs aimed at reducing our reliance on single-occupant vehicles and making alternatives such as transit, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and bicycle and pedestrian facilities a more important part of the transportation program. This paper presents an efficient method for analyzing and evaluating intermodal commuter networks, modeling interactions between modes, making predictions regarding future network activity in terms of traffic volumes and travel costs, and aiding the decision making process in terms of future transportation plans by evaluating alternative policies for improving the efficiency of high occupancy modes, mitigating congestion, reducing energy consumption, and air pollution.