Principal Investigator(s):
Eric Lind, AO Director, Center for Transportation Studies
Co-Investigators:
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Michael Levin, Assistant Professor, Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering
Project summary:
How much roadway usage should be expected following freeway expansion in rural areas? This question has immediate application in a number of areas of planning in MnDOT, and has not been widely studied in previous research, which has tended to focus on urban area vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In the current absence of a statewide travel demand model, MnDOT has little quantitative expectation of how roadway projects, including lane additions and interchange conversions, will change expected daily use of those and other roads, if at all. To address this gap we propose a rapid empirical study under the Applied Research in Transportation (ART) program. In this research we will (1) develop two distinct methods for expectations of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on rural Minnesota roadways; (2) use each method to forecast VMT following changes to the roadway network; (3) compare and reconcile the output of the methods on real or hypothetical roadway projects; and (4) recommend an approach for estimating VMT in rural areas of Minnesota. This method in particular addresses a known gap in methods for applying the Greenhouse Gas Impact Assessment procedure required of MnDOT and local road authorities.