Travel Modeling

RTC provides a variety of travel demand forecasting services to our member agencies using RTC’s Regional Travel Demand Model. Modeling analysis is used to inform regional transportation policy decisions and provide forecasts for use in the development of transportation plans, studies and projects. Key stakeholders include RTC, governmental partners (counties and cities), Washington State Department of Transportation, C-TRAN, the ports of Vancouver, Camas/Washougal, and Ridgefield, and private sector clients. As Clark County is a part of the larger Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area, RTC’s travel modeling program coordinates with similar efforts of Metro.

The process of travel demand forecasting uses what we know about the existing world to predict what conditions will be like in the future. The forecast is not a guess or an estimate, but a projection based on empirical data and reasonable assumptions about the future. RTC’s Regional Travel Demand Model is a system of models that use mathematical equations to represent the choices made by people when they travel. The modeling system used by RTC is regularly reviewed by the appropriate federal agencies and peer review panels to ensure that it meets federal guidelines as well as the standard practices of other travel demand models used throughout the country.