Modeling transportation systems: An overview

During the last decade, system analysis has moved into a more dominant role in transportation planning. Many of the larger cities have followed the lead of Detroit and Chicago in establishing citywide planning activities based on comprehensive statistics and systematic use of mathematical models. Attempts at regional planning have been seen in the Penn-Jersey study and the Northeast Corridor Project and a recent national effort was undertaken by the U.S. Department of Transportation for the 1972 National Transportation Report to Congress. In all of these an extensive use of mathematical modeling has been employed to describe intercity transportation.