Regional Travel Metrics
The Regional Travel Metrics (RTM) module in the Altitude platform provides insights to understand how vehicles are moving and the resulting infrastructure demand in an area of interest.
RTM provides regional insights on distance traveled for either Vehicle Mile Traveled (VMT) or Vehicle Kilometers Traveled (VKT), modeled AADT, fuel economy, and idling durations.
- Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)
- Quantifies the sum of all distances, measured in miles, that vehicles in a given region have traveled over a certain period.
- Vehicle Kilometers Traveled (VKT)
- Quantifies the sum of all distances, measured in kilometers, that vehicles in a given region have traveled over a certain period.
Vehicle Distance Traveled (VMT/VKT)
RTM provides both observed and scaled vehicle distance traveled to accurately assess the planning and infrastructure needs of a particular region. VMT/VKT metrics can be used to provide state level traffic for federal funding of infrastructure and maintenance activities. These metrics are used to forecast and plan future maintenance on local roadways and highways.
AADT Value Rounding
Raw AADT model predictions carry uncertainty that varies by road type, location, and data availability. Presenting unrounded predictions to customers overstates the model's precision and exposes them directly to prediction noise.
Reported AADT values are rounded to a precision level derived from the width of the 90% prediction interval (PI). The approach follows standard scientific convention for reporting measurements under uncertainty: the reported value should be no more precise than the uncertainty itself warrants. Specifically, the rounding precision is set to the order of magnitude of the PI half-width, with one additional decimal place retained when the leading digit of the half-width is 1 (the two-significant-figure rule for uncertainty).
