Disaggregate Modeling and the National Address Database Initiative
Corresponding Author: Erik Sabina, Colorado Department of Transportation
Presented By: Ian McIntyre, Colorado Department of Transportation
Abstract
Some geographically disaggregate travel models in use today assign a specific latitude/longitude point to each household in the model area: for example, this approach is taken in the Denver Regional Council of Governments’ (DRCOG) “Focus” model. Various sources have been used to obtain addresses to which households can be assigned: examples include parcel data from counties, and power hook-up point locations from utility companies. The Colorado Department of Transportation is developing a statewide disaggregate activity-based model based on the DRCOG Focus structure, and so requires a statewide set of household address points. In 2015-2016, CDOT worked with the GIS group at the State Office of Information Technology (OIT) to obtain and apply the necessary address points. OIT is participating in a USDOT-led effort to develop a nationwide set of address points, initially intended to support emergency response: USDOT sponsored a summit in Maryland in April, 2015 to discuss the initiative. This paper presents CDOT’s experience with using this address data source. Issues discussed include: missing data for some counties (and how to patch such holes); employing US Postal Service data to differentiate between residential and employment addresses, and between single-unit addresses and multi-unit; dealing with addresses that are not “real” (such as development platted but never built); issues of assigning households to addresses; and the implications of areas with far more addresses than primary residences (such as mountain ski towns with many second home dwelling units.) The paper will discuss the effects of such issues on explanatory variables used in model estimation, and estimation results using such variables for key model components such as Tour Mode Choice and Primary Destination Choice.