TBEST is a comprehensive third generation transit demand forecasting model, developed by the FDOT Public Transit Office (PTO) to help transit agencies in completing their Transit Development Plans (TDPs). The on-going project funded by FDOT, related to TBEST, aims at further enhancing the capabilities of the TBEST model based on additional opportunities identified by the research team. The project focuses on enhancing TBEST’s capabilities in following areas: 1) Improving the precision of socio- demographic data by using property appraisal data (parcel data) and, 2) Improving the quality of data regarding trip attraction. Based on the improvement areas, this study aims at performing an exploratory analysis to 1) Identify the differences in activity levels (population and employment) within transit stop buffers due to change in input data i.e. from aggregate census data to disaggregate parcel data. 2) Explore various strategies (development of employment based trip attraction and, parcel land use based trip attraction and exploring how special generators are dealt with in the past studies) to enhance the trip attraction capability of the TBEST model. The results obtained from this analysis provide insights on the strategies and helps define suggestions to further enhance the precision of TBEST model. The results show that use of parcel level data improves the accuracy in capturing the activity levels within the catchment area of each stop. The results also suggest use of parcel land use based trip attraction for stops with special generators or use of interaction variable (interaction between special generator dummy and size (square footage etc.) of the special generator) to enhance the trip attraction capability of the TBEST model.

Um dos enfoques mais utilizados na modelagem de geração de viagens de passageiros urbanos é a desagregação em nível de domicílios. Esta tese oferece razões lógicas e fortes evidências estatísticas para substituir modelos baseados em domicílios, introduzindo modelos desagregados em nível de indivíduos incorporando a influência das características e da estrutura do domicílio. Estes modelos provêm um considerável avanço sobre as práticas tradicionais. Um estudo de caso foi conduzido na região metropolitana de São Paulo - SP. Utilizou-se informação em nível individual, através de algumas variáveis disponíveis na pesquisa origem/destino de 1987 da Cia. do Metropolitano de São Paulo. Foi possível verificar várias vantagens em relação aos modelos tradicionais, bem como responder várias críticas aos modelos atuais. Analisou-se também os erros obtidos com o modelo individual com e sem a influência das características e estrutura domiciliares. / One approach that is widely used to conduct the urban passenger trip generation modelling is the disaggregate household based model. This thesis offers logical reasons and strong statistical evidences to replace household based models, indroducing individual disaggregate models, incorporating the influence of household characteristics and structure. These models represent a significant improvement over tradicional practice. A case study was conducted using data from metropolitan region of Sao Paulo City, Sao Paulo State. Information at individual levei was used, tluough some variables available in the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Company, 1987 origin/destination research. It was possible to verify several advantages in relation to traditional models as well as to answer several criticisms to the current models. It was also analysed errors obtained in the individual models with and without the influence of household characteristics and structure.

Um dos enfoques mais utilizados na modelagem de geração de viagens de passageiros urbanos é a desagregação em nível de domicílios. Esta tese oferece razões lógicas e fortes evidências estatísticas para substituir modelos baseados em domicílios, introduzindo modelos desagregados em nível de indivíduos incorporando a influência das características e da estrutura do domicílio. Estes modelos provêm um considerável avanço sobre as práticas tradicionais. Um estudo de caso foi conduzido na região metropolitana de São Paulo - SP. Utilizou-se informação em nível individual, através de algumas variáveis disponíveis na pesquisa origem/destino de 1987 da Cia. do Metropolitano de São Paulo. Foi possível verificar várias vantagens em relação aos modelos tradicionais, bem como responder várias críticas aos modelos atuais. Analisou-se também os erros obtidos com o modelo individual com e sem a influência das características e estrutura domiciliares. / One approach that is widely used to conduct the urban passenger trip generation modelling is the disaggregate household based model. This thesis offers logical reasons and strong statistical evidences to replace household based models, indroducing individual disaggregate models, incorporating the influence of household characteristics and structure. These models represent a significant improvement over tradicional practice. A case study was conducted using data from metropolitan region of Sao Paulo City, Sao Paulo State. Information at individual levei was used, tluough some variables available in the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Company, 1987 origin/destination research. It was possible to verify several advantages in relation to traditional models as well as to answer several criticisms to the current models. It was also analysed errors obtained in the individual models with and without the influence of household characteristics and structure.