Travel demand model system for the information era

The emergence of new information technologies and recent advances in existing technologies have provided new dimensions for travel demand decisions. In this paper we propose a comprehensive travel demand modeling framework to identify and model the urban development decisions of firms and developers and the mobility, activity and travel decisions of individuals and households, and to develop a system of models that can be used by decision makers and planners to evaluate the effects of changes in the transportation system and development of information technologies (e.g. various tele-commuting, tele-services and Intelligent Transportation Systems). The implementation of an operational model system based on this framework is envisioned as an incremental process starting with the current ''best practice'' of disaggregate travel demand model systems. To this end, we present an activity-based model system as the first stage in the development of an operational model system.