The administration of transportation modeling projects: A decision and control process

Transportation modeling is but part of a larger iterative decision and control process. As in all such processes if undue distortion, time delay, phase shift or noise exist, disruption of normal system operation will result. Examples of this include attempts to skip portions of the overall process such as the generation of alternatives, the consideration of criteria in evaluation, the analysis phase or the problem reformulation phase. Essential to successful administration of projects involving modeling is frequent two-way high-level contact between decision maker and modelers, the presence of a coordinator to perform liaison between the typical sociopolitical decision maker and the typical quantitative-technical analyst, the phasing of studies into modestly sized doable pieces, and the recognition of the roles of, and by, both the decision makers and the analysts. Some improvement in communication techniques and role recognition may be expected with the passage of time as more people enter decision-making positions who grew up in the computer era.