Fictional Case Study

Lake County, a fictional county located adjacent to a major metropolitan area, is experiencing rapid population growth as well as increasing congestion and accident rates on its roadways. The County is preparing an Area Transportation Plan to identify existing conditions on its transportation system and 20-year multi-modal transportation needs. The plan will establish transportation policy, identify the type and location of major proposed transportation projects, and prioritize corridors for transportation improvement within the county. It will be incorporated as part of the Regional Transportation Plan and serve as a basis for various project development activities. Following approval of the plan, the County will proceed to develop a major bypass project within a high priority corridor.

We have prepared a fictional case study of this planning and project development process to demonstrate various technologies identified during this NCHRP research project as promising for improving consideration of environmental concerns in transportation decisionmaking. Data sets presented to illustrate the various technology applications are taken from a number of different sources and in some cases are completely fabricated for illustration purposes.

Navigation aids are provided throughout the case study to allow you to seek more information about the demonstrated technologies. Clicking on the "report" icon will link you to the section of the NCHRP report text describing the technology in more detail. Clicking on the "process" icon will link you to information about other steps in the transportation decisionmaking process during which the technology can usefully be applied. The navigation sidebar on the right of your screen allows you to move from one technology demonstration to another.