California Air Resources Board Assessment of Land Use and Activity-Based Travel Models

Assessment of Land Use and Activity-Based Travel Models as Tools to Estimate GHG

In work for the California Air Resources Board, led team including the University of California in $250k project that reviewed the ability of the new generation of regional activity-based models and land use models to accurately account for greenhouse gas emissions from alternative scenarios including more compact walkable land use and roadway pricing. This work included hands-on testing of the most complex travel demand models in use in the U.S. today.

We found that these complex models are doing a poor job of accounting for induced travel and GHG. We also made recommendations for better modeling.