The Land Use and Transportation Scenario Analysis and Microsimulation (LUTSAM) application is the result of collaboration between the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) and the State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison to develop a transferable process which evaluates the of the impacts of land form and location on travel demand and measures of effectiveness. The process produces information in a manner easily understood by the public and local public officials. LUTSAM essentially provides a bridge between GIS, travel demand modeling and 3-D microsimulation and allows traditional and advanced TAZ-based models to operate at the parcel level.

The traditional approach to transportation and land use areawide and corridor studies using existing travel demand models and microsimulation is cumbersome and difficult to complete in a timely manner. It is also difficult to produce the results needed to evaluate the direct impacts of urban form, land use, and multimodal investments, especially bicycle and pedestrian investments, on mobility. This is particularly difficult with existing models since many do not operate at the level of geographic resolution needed. Industry wide, parcel-level modeling has been shown to improve such shortcomings in traditional travel demand modeling by providing the appropriate level of detail, along with measure of effectiveness that better quantify these analyses, however most parcel based models have also been developed as advanced models. This has left a gap for studies performed in areas lacking advanced models or studies that cannot be performed with the long run times needed to take advantage of advanced models.

This presentation will showcase the tool and the results of its application on transportation and land use studies in Delaware.