Richard
G. Dowling, Ph.D., P.E.
Principal
Dr. Richard G. Dowling, P.E. is a licensed Civil and Traffic Engineer.
Dr. Dowling has been the principal investigator for several National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) projects including: NCHRP 3-55(2), Planning Techniques for Estimating Speed and Level of Service, NCHRP 25-21, Predicting Short-Term and Long-Term Air Quality Effects of Traffic-Flow Improvement Projects, and NCHRP 3-70, Multimodal Level of Service for Urban Streets.
Dr. Dowling is currently chairman of the Transportation Research Board committee on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service (A3A10). He was extensively involved in the development of the 1994, 1997 and Year 2000 Highway Capacity Manuals. He developed the TRAFFIX TM software to aid analysts in the application of the Highway Capacity Manual to traffic impact analyses.
He has over 25 years of experience in transportation
planning, traffic engineering operations, research and education
as a municipal employee and as a consultant.
Professional Registration
Civil Engineer - California
Traffic Engineer - California
Professional Societies
Institute of Transportation Engineers
Transportation Research Board
Professional Experience
Highway Capacity Analysis - Dr. Dowling was extensively involved in the development of the 1994, 1997, and Year 2000 Highway Capacity Manuals. He is currently Chairman of the TRB committee on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service. He developed the TRAFFIX traffic impact analysis software to aid analysts in the application of the Highway Capacity Manual to traffic impact analyses. He was a panel member for NCHRP 3-64, HCM Applications Guide. He was principal investigator for the NCHRP Project 3-70, “Multimodal Level of Service for Urban Streets”, a project to develop and validate quantifiable measures of the traveling public’s perception of level of service on city streets from the perspectives of auto drivers, transit passengers, bicycle riders, and pedestrians.
Traffic Microsimulation – Dr. Dowling developed and wrote the Federal Highway Administration Microsimulation Guide, Traffic Analysis Toolbox, Volume III: Guidelines for Applying Traffic Microsimulation Modeling Software. He developed and wrote a guidebook for Caltrans on the application of Paramics for traffic analysis. He wrote the FHWA guidebook, Definition, Interpretation, And Calculation Of Traffic Analysis Tools Measures of Effectiveness. He has been an advisor to the FHWA NGSIM program, responsible for preparing the software verification and validation (V&V) guidelines for the program. Dr. Dowling led the development of a freeway and city street subarea microsimulation model using Paramics for the City of Pleasanton. He was responsible for quality assurance and peer review of the CORSIM microsimulation model for several miles of two crossing freeways for the I-880/92 interchange study. He led the development and validation of Synchro/SimTraffic models for a project impact analysis in Contra Costa County. He has been a simulation model trainer for Caltrans on the Paramics software.
Signal Coordination - Dr. Dowling is familiar
with and has instructed professionals in the use of TRANSYT, PASSER
and CORSIM for coordinating fixed time and actuated signals. He
was technical support consultant to Caltrans for their Fuel Efficient
Traffic Signal Management Project (FETSIM) to aid local agencies
in improving signal coordination. He timed and coordinated the Washington
Street signal system in San Leandro.
Freeway Simulation and Optimization - Dr. Dowling
has extensive experience using FREQ to simulate freeway operations
with and without ramp metering and HOV lanes. He conducted the Route
237 Freeway Operational Design Study for Santa Clara County, studying
ramp metering, HOV lanes, and auxiliary lanes.
HOV Lanes - Dr. Dowling has led a multi-disciplinary
team for FHWA to develop QUICK-HOV software for estimating the impacts
of freeway and arterial HOV lanes on HOV and SOV demand.
Parking - Dr. Dowling has led parking demand and
management studies for a range of special activity centers like:
Downtown San Mateo, Downtown Salinas, Downtown Sacramento, Old Sacramento,
Oakland's Jack London Square, Redondo Beach, and San Francisco's
Fisherman’s Wharf. As part of this work he has recommended
parking code revisions and reviewed parking garage designs to increase
parking efficiency.
Transportation Planning – Dr. Dowling wrote NCHRP 535, Predicting Air Quality Effects of Traffic-Flow Improvements , which developed a new integrated methodology consisting of the Portland Tour Based Model, a land use model, a microsimulation model, and the UC Riverside CMEM emissions model. This methodology was used to test the air quality impacts of 10 case studies in the Seattle Puget Sound Region.
Dr. Dowling wrote NCHRP 387, Planning Techniques for Estimating Speed and Level of Service. He conducted field studies and recommended improved speed-flow curves for the Southern California Association of Governments. He is the author of several papers on improving the speed estimates produced by travel models.
He has been technical advisor on models to Contra Costa Transportation Authority. He was a contributor to NARC "Best Modeling Practices" and Caltrans Model Guidelines reports. He has been project manager or engineer for several modeling projects, including: The Tri-Valley Model Update, Modesto City-wide Model and Traffic Impact Fee Study, Santa Clara County Golden Triangle Model, San Ramon Railroad Branchline Study, City of Hayward Comprehensive Traffic Study, Sacramento Northeast Corridor Study, and Sacramento Rural Agricultural Goods Movement Study. He is fluent in the MINUTP, TRANPLAN, and EMME/2 software packages .
Transit Planning - Dr. Dowling was project engineer
for the patronage forecasting portion of the Orange County Commuter
Rail Study. He supervised the development and calibration of a logit
mode split model for the project. As project engineer on the Solano
County Transportation Centers Study, he investigated the demand
for, cost, and feasibility of transportation centers for five cities.
He screened site alternatives and developed conceptual design schematics
for each of the sites.
Bicycle Engineering - As a municipal engineer
Dr. Dowling was responsible for designing and implementing the City
of Sacramento’s $25,000 annual program to install bike lanes
according to City's bikeway master plan. As a consultant, he recommended
improvements, estimated costs, and identified potential funding
for improving bicycle circulation within South Davis and improving
freeway bicycle crossing between South Davis and Davis, with particular
emphasis on school children and commuters.
Transportation Demand Management - Dr. Dowling has conducted
TDM studies of San Francisco General Hospital and Davies Medical
Center. He was responsible for identifying the employee mode split
impacts of higher parking charges, new parking garages, and increased
shuttle service.
Teaching - Dr. Dowling has presented University
of California ITS Extension courses on : Micro-simulation Models,
Transportation Planning Models and Software, and the Use of TRANSYT,
PASSER, and CORSIM in the coordination of Traffic Actuated Signals.
He also gave a U.C. Davis Extension course on, “City Planning
Techniques to Reduce Traffic Congestion.” He trained Caltrans
on the Paramics microsimulation software through a series of 3-day
courses held around the state.
Research - Dr. Dowling was principal investigator (P.I.) for a three year, $1.1 million dollar, National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) project #03-70, “Multimodal Level of Service for Urban Streets”, a project to develop and validate quantifiable measures of the traveling public’s perception of level of service on city streets from the perspectives of auto drivers, transit passengers, bicycle riders, and pedestrians.
He was principal investigator for the two year, $375,000, NCHRP project, #25-21, “Predicting the Long and Short Term Air Quality Effects of Traffic Flow Improvement Projects”. This project developed a new integrated air quality forecasting methodology consisting of the Portland Tour Based Model, a land use model, a microsimulation model, and the UC Riverside CMEM emissions model. It resulted in NCHRP Report # 535.
He was principal investigator for NCHRP 3-55(2), “Planning Techniques for Estimating Speed and Level of Service”; and its follow up study, NCHRP 3-55(2)A - “Planning Applications for the Year 2000 Highway Capacity Manual”. These two projects totaled $400,000. These two projects resulted in Chapters 28, 29, and 30 of the Year 2000 Highway Capacity Manual.
Dr. Dowling was principal investigator for the FHWA project to develop improved measures of effectiveness for traffic analysis tools and microsimulation software.
He was principal investigator for The Federal Highway Administration Project: “Predicting the Demand for HOV Lanes” (a $450,000 project); and the California Air Resources Board Project, “ The Effect of Increased Highway Capacity on Travel Demand.” He has participated in NCHRP 3-68, Development of Freeway Performance Measures, and the FSHRP Travel Time Reliability Strategic Research Program development. His Ph.D. dissertation was, “Simple Techniques for Deriving Vehicular OD Patterns in Small Study Areas.”
Education
Ph.D., Transportation Engineering, University of California, Berkeley,
1984
M.S., Transportation Planning, University of California, Berkeley,
1975
B.S., Civil Engineering (Honors), University of California, Berkeley
1973
Publications
Dowling, R., Definition, Interpretation, And Calculation Of Traffic Analysis Tools Measures of Effectiveness, Publication in process, Federal Highway Administration, 2007.
NCHRP 535, Predicting Air Quality Effects of Traffic-Flow Improvements, Transportation Research Board, Washington D.C., 2005.
Traffic Analysis Toolbox, Volume III: Guidelines for Applying Traffic Microsimulation Modeling Software, Publication No. FHWA-HRT-04-040, June 2004
Dowling, R., A. Skabardonis, J. Halkias, G. McHale, G. Zammit, “Guidelines for Calibration of Microsimulation Models: Framework and Applications”, Transportation Research Record 1876, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. 2004.
Chapters 28, 29, 30 of Highway Capacity Manual, Year 2000 Edition,
Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2000.
NCHRP 387, Planning Techniques for Estimating Speed and Service
Volumes for Planning Applications, Transportation Research Board,
Washington D.C., 1998.
Travel Model Speed Estimation and Post Processing Methods for Air
Quality Analysis, U.S. Department of Transportation, DOT-T-98-5,
Washington, D.C., October 1997.
Dowling, R., R. Singh, and W. Cheng, “The Accuracy and Performance
of Improved Speed Flow Curves”, Road and Transportation Research,
Vol. 7, No. 2, June 1998. ARRB Transport Research, Victoria, Australia.
“Extension of the Level of Service Concept to Transportation
Systems”, Paper #980021, Transportation Research Board, Washington,
D.C. 1998.
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