Montana Transportation and Land Use
Technical Analysis Tools - Traffic Analysis Tools
What are traffic analysis tools?
Traffic analysis tools are used to describe a variety of analytical procedures and methodologies that support different aspects of traffic and transportation analyses. This set of tools ranges in sophistication, cost, and complexity. The more sophisticated, and expensive, software packages allow for detailed specification of auto, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian behavior. Simpler tools will aggregate or generalize behavior, providing planning-level estimates of the potential impacts.
Why and where are traffic analysis tools applied?
Local and regional transportation agencies of all sizes and geographies use traffic analysis tools. However, the complexity of tools used varies. Travel demand models and simulation software platforms are often cost prohibitive and require large amounts of data that are difficult to obtain in small areas. However, sketch planning tools and the use of simple multimodal performance measures can be used to evaluate the transportation needs of smaller cities, towns and rural communities.