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Abstract for presentation (Poster or Podium) with a Paper in the Conference Proceedings

Sustainable Transportation & Urban Development

Ranking Transportation Investments for Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Impact using Project Outputs

Sunday, June 16, 2024
3:00 PM - 4:15 PM ET
Room: Galleria
Abstract:

Transportation investments can have a significant impact on travel decisions and trip characteristics. In recent years, agencies have been promoting and investing in projects that reduce the vehicle miles traveled (VMT). The main target of these investments is to make sustainable transportation modes such as transit, non-motorized modes, and telecommuting more convenient in comparison to driving alone. However, agencies need to evaluate the effectiveness of their investments in terms of meeting the objective of VMT reduction. The challenges of achieving a programmatic level evaluation are numerous- the lack of a common methodology to estimate VMT for a wide range of investments, difficulty in making comparisons among projects of different investment sizes, and lack of comprehensive information regarding the project details influencing future VMT. In this paper, we have addressed these challenges by proposing a metric named, VMT rating. Using the VMT rating, we have compared transportation investments in three different phases across seven programs of the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans). The ranking allowed CalTrans to find out the most effective transportation investments in reducing VMT.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:
  • Rank transportation investments by VMT
  • Compare transportation programs based on their relative effectiveness in VMT reduction
  • Define VMT rating using the reported project outputs