Examining an important urban transportation management tool: subarea modeling

At present, customized subarea models have been widely used in local transportation planning throughout the United States. The biggest strengths of a subarea model lie in its more detailed and accurate modeling outputs which better meet local planning requirements. In addition, a subarea model can substantially reduce database size and model running time. In spite of these advantages, subarea models remain quite weak in maintaining consistency with a regional model, modeling transit projects, smart growth measures, air quality conformity, and other areas. Both opportunities and threats exist for subarea modeling. In addition to examining subarea models, this paper introduces the decision-making process in choosing a proper subarea modeling approach (windowing versus focusing) and software package. This study concludes that subarea modeling will become more popular in the future. More GIS applications, travel surveys, transit modeling, microsimulation software utilization, and other modeling improvements are expected to be incorporated into the subarea modeling process.