david pritchard. bibliography.

Notes on Meyer and Miller, "Urban Transportation Planning" [2]

My understanding is that this is the authoritative textbook for transportation planning, at least the relatively progressive strands of the discipline. Unfortunately, it's very hard to get a hold of... UBC only has the typewritten first edition from 1982, which is very difficult to read, and the University of Toronto only has one copy in its entire library system.

But, I've had a chance to sit in UofT and skim their copy. The book looks excellent; I'll probably buy a copy for my own use. It's very technical, aimed at students studying for professional work in the field, but (as someone interested in that possible future) very useful to those types.

So far, I've basically just copied down the table of contents below, since it's very hard to find information like this without a copy of the book on hand... useful for anyone else out there on the Internet who's thinking of buying the book.

Urban Transportation Planning: Definition and Context

Introduction (1p)

A Definition of Urban Transportation Planning (4p)

Urban transportation planning is the process of
  1. Establishing a vision of what a community wants to be and how the transportation system fits into this vision.
  2. Understanding the types of decisions that need to be made to achieve this vision.
  3. Assessing opportunities and limitations of the future in relationship to goals and desired system performance measures.
  4. Identifying the near- and long-term consequences to the community and to transportation system users of alternative choices designed to take advantage of these opportunities or respond to these limitations.
  5. Relating alternative decisions to the goals, objectives, or system performance measures established for an urban area, agency, or firm.
  6. Presenting this information to decision makers in an understandable and useful form.
  7. Helping decision makers establish priorities and develop an investment program.

[pp. 4-5]

A Multimodal Perspective on Transportation Planning (7p)

Multimodal transportation planning is defined as

The process of defining problems, identifying alternatives, evaluating potential solutions and selecting preferred actions that meet community goals in a manner that includes all feasible transportation modes [1].

[p. 7]

A Changing Society and its Impact on Urban Transportation Planning (23p)

Chapter Summary (1p)

Transportation Planning and Decision Making

Introduction (0p)

Institutional Framework for Transportation Decision Making (11p)

An Evolving Perspective on the Planning and Decision-Making Process (8p)

Conceptual Models of Decision Making (8p)

The Elements of Decision Making: Development of a Transportation Planning Process (3p)

Characteristics of a Decision-Oriented Planning Process (4p)

Development of a Decision-Oriented Transportation Planning Approach (5p)

Chapter Summary (2p)

Urban Travel and Transportation System Characteristics: A Systems Perspective

Introduction (0p)

Transportation from a Systems Perspective (22p)

Transportation System Impacts (38p)

Characteristics of Urban Travel (14p)

Chapter Summary (3p)

Data Management and Use in Decision Making

A good overview of the methods and types of data used, typical sample sizes and data collection costs. Also includes discussion of data collection used in various MPOs, including Portland.

Introduction (0p)

The Transportation Planning Database (6p)

Transportation System and User Data (19p)

Developing a Community Vision and Goals Set (16p)

Monitoring Transportation Performance: The Feedback Loop (10p)

Developing a Data Management Plan (5p)

Chapter Summary (3p)

Demand Analysis

Introduction (1p)

The Role of Demand Analysis in Transportation Planning (8p)

Analysis of Transportation Demand (8p)

Simplified Demand Estimation Techniques (6p)

The Urban Transportation Modeling System (20p)

Discrete Choice Models (13p)

Activity-Based Methods (6p)

Estimating Nonmotorized Travel Demand (1p)

Estimating Goods Movement Demand (9p)

Chapter Summary (1p)

Urban Activity System Analysis

Introduction (1p)

Basic Concepts and the Role of Urban Activity Analysis in Transportation Planning (7p)

Land-Use Models (31p)

Assesment of Transportation Impacts on the Urban Activity System (2p)

Chapter Summary (1p)

Supply Analysis

Introduction (0p)

The Role of Supply Analysis in Transportation Planning (5p)

Analysis of Transportation System Performance (5p)

Performance Analysis Methods for Facilities (22p)

Network Models (12p)

Impact Models (17p)

Cost Models (17p)

Chapter Summary (4p)

Transportation System and Project Evaluation

Introduction (1p)

What is Evaluation? (4p)

Characteristics of Benefit and Cost Measurement (15p)

A Framework for Evaluation (2p)

Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation (2p)

Economic Concepts of Discounting and Capital Recovery (3p)

Comparative Assessment Methods (12p)

Examples of Evaluation in Transportation Planning (27p)

Evaluation of Implemented Programs and Projects (Ex Post Evaluation) (6p)

Chapter Summary (1p)

Program and Project Implementation

Introduction (0p)

Characteristics of a Programming Process (5p)

Setting Priorities for Project Selection (17p)

Financial Analysis and Funding Availability (10p)

Program/Project Implementation and Innovative Funding (16p)

Chapter Summary (1p)

Appendix A: Chronology of Selected Federal Actions Related to Urban Transportation Planning (12p)

Appendix B: Determination of Sample Size (8p)

Bibliography

1
Michael D. Meyer.
Jumpstarting the move toward multimodal planning.
Transportation Research Circular, 406, April 1993.

2
Michael D. Meyer and Eric J. Miller.
Urban Transportation Planning: A Decision-Oriented Approach.
McGraw-Hill, New York City, NY, USA, 2nd edition, 2001.


David Pritchard 2007-12-10