Office of Operations
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21st Century Operations Using 21st Century Technologies

Travel Demand Management Publications and Reference Materials

  • Active Transportation and Demand Management (ATDM) Briefs
    • Active Parking Management (HTML, PDF 1.3MB)
    • An Introduction to Active Transportation and Demand Management (HTML, PDF 819KB)
    • Highway Capacity Manual (HCM)-ATDM Project Overview (HTML, PDF 331KB)
    • The International Influence on ATDM in the United States (HTML, PDF 2.1MB)
  • Active Transportation and Demand Management Website
  • An Assessment of the Expected Impacts of City-Level Parking Cash-Out and Commuter Benefits Ordinances (HTML, PDF 1.5MB) - This project analyzed and evaluated the impact city‑level parking cash‑out ordinances could have on vehicle travel, congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, crashes, and equity externalities for a sample of nine cities and five distinct scenarios. The final report describes the scenarios studied; the analysis approach, including inputs, outputs, methodology, limitations, and assumptions; data sources; and results for the sample of cities.
  • Carpool and Vanpool Projects (23 CFR 656.5)
  • Commuter Choice Primer—An Employer's Guide to Implementing Effective Commuter Choice Programs - This Primer is intended to be a concise, user-friendly reference guide for employers and transportation professionals to developing and implementing work site commuter choice programs. A digital tool called the Commuter Choice Decision Support System is packaged with the Primer to enable an employer to actually develop and test out a various commuter choice programs that fit their situation.
  • Expanding Traveler Choices through the Use of Incentives: A Compendium of Examples (HTML, PDF 1.9MB) - With increased congestion across the Nation's roadways, transportation agencies and others are testing new approaches and implementing programs to cause travelers to shift their behavior to alleviate congestion. Using behavioral economic theories, agencies have provided different incentives to promote behavioral changes from travelers to shift modes, times of travel, or routes taken before and during their trips. This primer looks at different programs across the world to see how organizations have tackled congestion with these strategies.
  • Integrating Demand Management into the Transportation Planning Process: A Desk Reference (HTML, PDF 22MB) - The document has been developed to serve as a desk reference on integrating demand management into the transportation planning process.
  • Managing Demand Through Travel Information Services - This brochure highlights the opportunities and benefits for using traveler information services to manage demand during periods of congestion, including congestion during commute periods, special events, and emergencies. The brochure presents the diversity of traveler information systems in use around the country and overseas and how State and local agencies are using traveler information as a demand management tool. The results are summarized in an easy to read, colorful, format.
  • Linking Demand Management and Traffic Management: ATDM Program Brief (HTML, PDF 633KB) - This Informational Brief discusses Active Transportation and Demand Management (ATDM) opportunities and initiatives which combine, or leverage, the strengths of two historically independent transportation disciplines; i.e., transportation demand management (TDM) and traffic management. Linking TDM and traffic management programs enhances the ability of transportation stakeholders to address mobility and reliability concerns in travelers’ decision-making processes and enables users to make informed decisions throughout their trip. The brief provides examples where TDM and traffic management have been combined in practice and introduces a self-assessment framework that agencies can use to identify existing gaps and opportunities for improving the linkages between TDM and traffic management.

  • Mitigating Traffic Congestion: The Role of Demand-side Strategies (HTML, PDF, 17MB) - This report builds upon previous work done on travel demand management in the early 1990's to present a newer, more contemporary, perspective on what managing demand in the 21st Century really means. In the overview section, the report frames the case that managing travel demand today is about providing travelers, regardless of whether they drive alone, with choices of location, route, and time, not just mode. The report presents many examples and case studies that demonstrate how demand is managed under a broader set of situations and conditions for commute and non-commuter types of trips.
  • Parking Cruising Analysis Methodology: Final Project Report (HTML, PDF 9.2MB) - Motorists circling or cruising for on-street parking that is free or priced below market equilibrium can contribute to congestion and other problems. This report documents a methodology and tool that can be used to understand cruising for parking and the effects of policy interventions on parking search behaviors. It includes case analyses from four U.S. cities, identifying cruising hot spots by time of day and location and assessing policy impacts. The report also documents lessons learned relating to data quality, tool implementation, and the analyses results.
  • Providing a 5-Minute Pickup Priority for Ridehail Users Agreeing to Pool: Potential Impacts on Curtailing Bus Delay and Enhancing Equity (PDF - 1.8MB) - The purpose of this study is to explore the potential to significantly enhance equity and reduce congestion experienced by city bus riders due to transportation network company (TNC) operations (most especially within corridors with significant bus service) through select TNC or government policy measures. The study analyzes data from a survey conducted by a large TNC, coupled with appended demographic and trip data, to ascertain the impacts of changing private party and shared party TNC pricing and trip times to encourage TNC customers to choose a shared instead of a ride-alone trip. The research looks at the impacts of both total trip + wait time and price on customer decisions to choose a pooling option or to instead insist on a private trip. Compressing the difference in duration between shared and drive-alone trips (including wait time for initial pick up) by 5 minutes is shown to roughly double the proportion of TNC trips that customers choose to share to about 50% of all such trips.
  • Smartphone Applications To Influence Travel Choices: Practices and Policies (HTML, PDF 3MB) - This primer provides an overview of current practices in this emerging field and looks toward the future in the evolution and development of smartphone applications for the transportation sector.
  • Shared Mobility: Current Practices and Guiding Principles (HTML, PDF 2.1MB) - This primer provides an introduction and background to shared mobility; discusses the government’s role; reviews success stories; examines challenges, lessons learned, and proposed solutions; and concludes with guiding principles for public agencies. The primer provides an overview of current practices in this emerging field, and it also looks toward the future in the evolution and development of shared mobility.
  • Shared Use Mobility: European Experience and Lessons Learned
  • Strengthening Linkages between Transportation Demand Management and Traffic Management (HTML, PDF 8.9MB) - This document presents real-world examples of how State and local traffic managers and demand management professionals can work together and coordinate implementation strategies to proactively manage mobility and reliability concerns under different contexts including: managing demand and traffic during weather events and natural disasters, linking TDM and traffic management as part of transit disruption, incorporating TDM as part of a major road reconstruction project and other high demand situations.

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