January 2023 Meeting

Natalia Brown · January 31, 2023

Meetings

Below is the agenda and notes for the January 2023 Utah MUG meeting. The meeting agenda and notes can also be viewed here

Agenda

  1. Welcome & Introductions (~15min)

  2. Utah MUG Vision and Objectives (~10 min)

    • Purpose: work together in an atmosphere of mutual respect and collaboration to inform, improve, and promote the science, art, and application of travel demand forecasting throughout the state of Utah
    • Draft Vision and Objectives document here.

  3. What MUG discusses and does not discuss (~5 min)

    • Types of Models Discussed
    Land Use Models Travel Demand Models Other Models
    Real Estate Market Model (REMM) used by MAG & WFRC Utah Statewide Travel Model (USTM) Bike Model
    Socioeconomic Allocation Model (spreadsheet model) used by UDOT, Cache MPO & Dixie MPO Including Subarea Import (Snapping) Model Access to Opportunity (ATO) Model
      Wasatch Front Travel Demand Model STOPS
      Cache Travel Demand Model  
      Dixie Travel Demand Model  
      Summit-Wasatch Travel Demand Model  
      Iron County Travel Demand Model  
    • Types of Models Not Discussed
      • Microsimulation models
      • Air quality models

  4. Meeting format and engagement (~5 min)

    • MUG committee will send an agenda the month before the meeting asking for presentation topics/discussion items. Everyone is welcome to submit: agencies, consultants, universities.
    • Meeting frequency: quarterly (January, April, July, October).
    • Meeting time: Tuesday at 10am.

  5. Presentations (~40 min)

    • Utah Travel Demand Models (Agencies)
    • “Tooele Midvalley Highway EA Travel Modeling” by Avenue Consultants.

  6. UTRAC Research Topics (~10 min)

    • Travel demand model accuracy evaluation
      • Using NCHRP Report 934 as a guide, assess the accuracy of Utah’s historic travel demand model forecasts.
    • Socioeconomic data in TDM
      • Evaluate current socioeconomic data development methods and explore options for improvement. Includes all Utah TDMs (including USTM) except for the WFRC/MAG model.
    • Speed data accuracy in travel demand model
      • Assessment of how accurate speeds are for various area types and functional types in Utah’s travel demand models.
    • Telecommute

  7. Suggestion Box: please enter any suggestions here.

Notes

  • Proposed to have different topics for each meeting. For example, focus one meeting on data, another on work in other states, another on national resources like NCHRP reports.
  • Discussion about meeting frequency
    • Given all the topics, it may be valuable to meet every two months.
    • Some would like more frequent meetings.
    • Others expressed concern with too frequent meetings because we are all very busy.
    • Consultants expressed their time limitations.
    • Decided to start the meetings on a quarterly basis and see how it goes from there.
  • Discussion: would our own conference be of interest?
    • Some think it would be valuable.
    • Have a stronger presence in existing groups (ITE, Utah Transportation Conference, others).
    • Have training sessions during an existing conference.
  • Desire to have a newsletter or a non-meeting way of sharing knowledge (slack, others).
  • Proposed to use ITE meetings as a forum for longer presentations (conference March 21st).