Transportation modeling applications can be divided into two categories: travel demand forecasting and operational modeling. Demand forecasting predicts future traffic volumes for long-term infrastructure investments; operational modeling focuses on specific problems at a near-term or finer level of detail (such as for improving the traffic signal timing along a corridor, identifying the causes of an existing bottleneck, assessing the mobility impacts of a planned construction project, or decision-making on alternative selection).
NCHRP Synthesis 650: Practices for Operational Traffic Simulation Models, from TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program, documents state department of transportation processes and procedures for the use of operational traffic simulation models.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. Practices for Operational Traffic Simulation Models. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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