Using TRANUS to Construct a Land Use-Transportation-Emissions Model of Charlotte, North Carolina

Integrated land use-transportation-emissions models are necessary to rigorously assess the potential of land use and transportation policies to reduce the vehicular emissions contributing to tropospheric ozone and to fine particulate matter. A theoretically- and empirically-grounded model contains these major components: data on economic sectors, population sectors, and intersectoral flows of commodities and labor; a transportation network; sectoral demands for land, predicting both the quantity and location demanded; elastic trip generation; transportation mode choice including non-motorized modes as a function of built-environment characteristics; a traffic assignment algorithm; and a MOVES-like module that estimates emission factors. That technical approach is incorporated in a TRANUS-based model that is being used to assess long-term development scenarios that could be implemented in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina's largest metropolitan area and part of an ozone nonattainment area. A unique feature of the Mecklenburg County model is use of random-utility theory and a typology of the built environment in the estimation of key parameters describing residential and enterprise locational choices and transportation mode choice.