Urban transportation energy conservation: case city applications of analysis methodologies

This report demonstrates the application of a set of disaggregate travel demand methodologies to the analysis of potential energy conservation strategies in three urban areas: Denver, Colorado; Fort Worth, Texas; and San Francisco, California. The methodologies are sketch planning in nature and include the forecasting of changes in automobile ownership; work trip model shares by drive alone, shared ride, and transit; non-work trip frequency, destination, and mode choice; fuel consumption and vehicle emissions. Using concepts of market segmentation and random sample household aggregation, both computer system and manual worksheet versions of the basic approach are applied. Policies analyzed include those related as employer based ride sharing, parking management, transit, pricing, and traffic operations. Considerable variations in the potential effectiveness was found, among the three urban areas, depending in large part on the availability of alternative travel modes such as transit. Descriptions are provided of the individual policy analyses performed, the methods by which example policies were analyzed, the necessary data preparation activities, and the procedures used to adapt the set of travel demand models to the unique conditions of each of the three metropolitan areas.