Guide for Travel Model Transfer

Travel demand models are important tools used in transportation planning to forecast the amount of travel expected to occur under various scenarios and to estimate the effects of changes in transportation supply or policies. The mathematical relationships in these models depend on parameters that reflect the sensitivity of travelers’ choices to the model’s input variables. The process of model transfer from one region to another has become commonplace as a way to obtain model parameter estimated when sufficient local data for model estimation. This report provides guidance to transportation planners on alternative approaches to model transfer based on the amount of available resources. The guidance, which is based on research that has been conducted on model transferability, is supplemented with simple examples of the various model transfer methods.