TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 358: Statewide Travel Forecasting Models examines statewide travel forecasting models designed to address planning needs and provide forecasts for statewide transportation, including passenger vehicle and freight movements. The report explores the types and purposes of models being used, integration of state and urban models, data requirements, computer needs, resources (including time, funding, training, and staff), limitations, and overall benefits. The report includes five case studies, two that focus on passenger components, two on freight components, and one on both passenger and freight.

This synthesis report will be of interest to department of transportation ( DOT) administrators, planning supervisors, managers, and staffs, as well as to planning consultants that work with them. It provides information for practitioners interested in the results of attempts to apply multimodal considerations at the statewide level and identifies key research findings. It covers post-ISTEA (Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991) processes and projects and both passenger and freight activities. The report examines the application of three multimodal aspects: alternatives, modal mix, and integration into three statewide planning functions, which include state planning, corridor studies, and financing, budgeting, and programming. The emphasis is on implementation. This report of the Transportation Research Board documents processes and research currently under development, using three approaches: a literature review, results of a survey of state DOTs, and five case studies. It cites the following states with exemplary practices in multimodal/intermodal transportation based on a 1998 report by the policy research project at the University of Texas on Multimodal/ Intermodal Transportation: Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-C46-RR-1: Activity-Based Travel Demand Models: A Primer explores ways to inform policymakers' decisions about developing and using activity-based travel demand models to better understand how people plan and schedule their daily travel. The document is composed of two parts. The first part provides an overview of activity-based model development and application. The second part discusses issues in linking activity-based models to dynamic network assignment models.

In this research, a feasibility study to develop an Idaho statewide transportation model is conducted. Review of statewide transportation models from Florida, Wyoming, Michigan, Vermont, Indiana, and Pennsylvania is conducted to summarize the most appropriate procedure for developing a statewide model. On the local level, the transportation planning effort in Idaho is reviewed. This effort includes review of the metropolitan planning organization models as well as Idaho commodity flows, which will be the basis for the statewide model. A review of the transportation planning software packages is conducted to select the most appropriate package for statewide modeling. The research team recommends Transplan as the outweighing package for Idaho statewide modeling. A transportation model requires the input of a transportation network, traffic data and land use data. Therefore, the availability of existing digital databases is assessed. This study has constructed the foundation for developing the Idaho statewide travel demand model. On the basis of this feasibility study, ITD will implement phase two of this project, the development of the Idaho Statewide Transportation Model. The proposal for the model is represented in the final section of this report.