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WFRC outlines multi-year upgrade to regional travel model, plans activity-based approach by 2029
Summary
WFRC staff described a planned three-year project to integrate an activity-based model (ABM) into the Wasatch Front regional travel model, intended to improve trip-chaining representation, incorporate new data sources and support next regional transportation plan analysis.
Bert Granberg, WFRC analytics staff, briefed the Regional Growth Committee on a planned upgrade to the Wasatch Front regional travel model to incorporate an activity-based modeling (ABM) approach and related visualization tools.
Granberg summarized the model’s history and purpose, noting the region’s travel-model lineage dates to the 1960s and has been updated in stages to include transit modeling and integrated land-use forecasting. He said a recent peer-review recommended moving toward an activity-based approach and that the ABM integration would better represent how households chain trips and make travel choices.
Granberg said the proposed project would adapt an existing ABM implementation from another metropolitan planning organization and customize it for the Wasatch Front to shorten development time and reduce costs. The three-year project timeline targets summer 2029 for delivering an ABM-capable regional model to support the next regional transportation plan cycle.
Key benefits outlined by Granberg include improved representation of multi-stop trip chains, better evaluation of emerging travel choices and policies (for example, tolling, transit fares and new mobility modes), and closer integration with location-based and household-travel-survey data. He noted investigators already plan to use the household travel survey recently completed and commercial location-based services data to calibrate model outputs.
Granberg estimated consulting costs of a little over $1 million over three years and said WFRC and partner agencies — including UDOT, UTA and the Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG) — would seek to share the investment. The project is intended to keep the region aligned with national best practices and to make future joint investments with other MPOs more efficient.
Committee members asked about using mobile-device and raw location-based data in model calibration. Granberg said WFRC will continue to use household travel survey data and work with commercial location-based data providers; another committee member recommended building in-house capacity to process raw mobile-positioning data rather than purchasing pre-processed products.
Granberg characterized the upgrade as a major technical investment that will support air-quality conformity analyses and future scenario testing for transportation investments.
