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42 BREAKOUT SESSION Education and Outreach Robert Donnelly, PB Consult, Inc. Donald Hubbard, Fehr & Peers Associates LIFELONG EDUCATION AS A NECESSARY FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESS IN TRAVEL MODELING Robert Donnelly Robert Donnelly discussed training and education needs associated with advancing the state of the practice in travel demand modeling. He outlined possible elements of a lifelong educational approach as a foundation for successful advancements in travel modeling. A paper on this topic is provided in Volume 2.1 The following points were covered in his presentation. ⢠There is a gap between the current skills of most metropolitan planning organization (MPO) staff and the skill sets needed to implement and use new travel model- ing techniques. With the rapid change in technologies, models, and analysis techniques, the necessary skill sets also continue to change. Unlike the previous generation of civil engineers and planners, who could count on the skills that they learned in college to be appropriate for 20 years, graduates today are lucky if the techniques that they learn are appropriate after 10 years. ⢠It is difficult to keep university curriculum on travel modeling current given rapid changes in tools and tech- niques. The skill sets that travel modelers need today are very different from the skill sets needed in the past. The use of large- scale traffic simulation models, such as TRANSIMS, requires an understanding of travel choice behavior, activity- based travel analysis, traffic science, traffic control systems, intelligent transportation sys- tems, network dynamics and disequilibrium, and simula- tion analysis and modeling. These skills are in addition to a solid background in mathematics, statistics, and microeconomics. Microeconomics is typically not required for civil engineers, and individuals with a social science education may not have a background in some of these subject areas. ⢠Currently, there are limited training opportunities available to practitioners covering some of these topics. Examples of these training opportunities include the week- long National Highway Institute (NHI) course on travel forecasting and the 3-day NHI advanced travel demand forecasting course. There are also conferences, such as this one, and workshops on travel modeling. A self- instruction text on mode choice modeling is also available. All of these efforts provide a good base to com- municate ideas and concepts, but they do not provide the comprehensive skill sets needed by modelers. There are also more intensive activities, such as the week- long advanced modeling course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Further, distance- based learning courses are available on the Internet. Some of these courses may be intimidating for many people, however, because they are very mathematically oriented. ⢠Mentoring provides an informal learning process that occurs over a longer period of time. This approach 1 See Donnelly, R. Lifelong Education as a Necessary Foundation for Success in Travel Modeling. In Conference Proceedings 42: Innovations in Travel Demand Modeling, Volume 2: Papers, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2008, pp. 121â123.
