Virginia Transportation Modeling Program

Developer:
VDOT Transportation and Mobility Planning Division, Travel Modeling Group

Completion year:
2003

Base year:
2000

Forecast year:
2030

Interim year:
2010, 2020 (in MINUTP format)

2000 population:
236,000

Area:
1,394 square miles

Jurisdictions:
Fredericksburg, and Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties

Air quality status:
In-attainment

Internal TAZs:
804

links/Nodes:
6,622/2,527

Software:
CUBE Voyager
(December 2006)

Trip purposes:
Home-based work
Home-based other
Non-home based

Time period modeled:
Daily

Modes:
Passenger vehicle

The model overlaps the Washington, D.C., regional model area to the north and borders the Richmond/Tri-Cities regional model to the south. The Rappahannock River bisects the model.

Travel characteristics

The Fredericksburg region is a bedroom community for Northern Virginia, with 40 percent of the commuter trips destined there.

The area has a significant number of carpoolers (the commute trip, at 1.4 persons per vehicle, is one of the highest in the nation) as well as non-auto travel associated with the Washington, D.C., area commute.

A significant number of buses run between Fredericksburg and Washington, D.C., and several park-and-ride lots in the area are heavily used.

In addition, enough commuters use the Virginia Railway Express to reduce travel on Interstate 95 the equivalent of one lane.

A unique characteristic of the Fredericksburg commute to Washington, D.C., is the "slug" method of travel. Drivers pick up passengers at park-and-ride lots in order to qualify to use the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on I-95.
Although there are no HOV lanes in the region, their use north of the region for the Washington, D.C., commute heavliy influences the travel charactersitics of workers traveling from the Fredericksburg area.

I-95 is a heavily traveled highway with a large number of trucks (20 percent south of Route 17).

Some major regional trip generators include Marine Corps Base Quantico in Stafford County and Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline County.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren in King George County, although a civilian facility, employs a large number (5,000) of commuters that live throughout the region.

Various toll, HOV, and high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane projects and studies have been proposed and conducted in the region.