NCDOT’s Transportation Planning Division (TPD) seeks to utilize a tool to estimate the impact of peak spreading based on capacity constraints that is found in the latest national guidance for traffic forecasting in NCHRP 765. A previous research project (NCDOT 2017-24) synthesized information about how development density and peak travel are related and examined how peak hour traffic has changed throughout the state relative to land use, facility characteristics, and socioeconomic factors. This project takes the results of the previous study and implements them in a computational tool to create a customized model that provides NCDOT with the ability to more realistically forecast traffic based on conditions specific to North Carolina. This research delivers a final tool and implementation strategy that helps traffic forecasters understand how traffic spreads and enable them to provide more realistic traffic forecasts. Previous project efforts are appropriately implemented in a user-friendly tool rather than requiring the forecaster to spend excessive time referencing models, equations, and tables from a final report.
