Instructions for Constructing an Easily Editable Thesis Document Creation

To increase the speed at which thesis documents can be edited and to eliminate making multiple corrections on the same section of your writing, CTRE has established the following procedure to streamline the editing process. The pre-requisites for this procedure are Microsoft Word and access to a shared drive accessible by both the author and all potential editors.
Open a blank document in Microsoft Word. Change the View setting to Outline using the View pull-down menu. Type the heading for the first section of your thesis, i.e., Introduction. Highlight the heading, then open the style pull-down menu. The style menu is located in the Formatting toolbar, along with the font and font size pull-down menus. Select Heading 1 for the selected heading. On the following line, write a brief (1 or 2 sentence) description of what is included in the following section. Using the style menu again, make this sentence(s) Heading 2. Type in subsequent subheadings, using the style menu to make these lines Heading 3. A descriptive sentence in Heading 4 style should be added after the subheading. Body text should be written in body or normal style. Highlight the Heading 1 entry while in the Outline view. Press the Collapse button (minus sign). Notice that only Heading 1 entries are shown. Selecting the Expand button (plus sign) reveals the next highest heading style under the selected heading. To reveal headings of a particular class and higher throughout the document, press the Show Heading X buttons right of the Collapse and Expand buttons.

Document Viewing
Once the original document has been created in this format, editors can quickly identify headings, descriptive sentences about the headings, subheadings, etc. by viewing the document in outline format.
Verify the view is set to Outline. To view all headings: Select the Show Heading 1 button. To view all headings and respective descriptive sentences: Select Show Heading 2 button. To view more detail in under a particular heading: Highlight the heading, then press the Expand button.

Document Comments
Occasionally, a general comment about a section may be more appropriate then complete editing. A comment box may be used to quickly convey a short message within a document.
Highlight the word or area for the comment to be attached to. Press the Insert pull-down menu and select Comment. A comment text window will appear. Use the mouse to place the cursor in this window. Type the appropriate comments, then press the Close button in the comment text window.

Document Editing
When edits to a document are to be made by a major professor, editor, or author, a record of the changes made will assist in tracking progress.
Change the view to Page Layout or Normal views. Select the Track Changes option under the Tools pull-down menu. Click on Highlight Changes.

Press the Options button to specify the mark and color to be used when editing and revising the document. When the editor makes an edit, a distinguishable style will appear. The author can then identify edits and make adjustments with another font type. When in track change mode, the right mouse button will allow changes to be accepted or rejected. The editor then can accept the edits, suggest new comments, or reject the changes.

Attached is an example document to illustrate the proposed editing format.

INTRODUCTION
This section of the paper will include an abstract, along with a description of the proposed paper. A schedule of events will temporarily be placed in the intro section. The general layout of this proposed thesis is a introduction of the subject matter, a literature review of pertinent information, a compilation of two papers co-authored by the thesis author, Jerry Shadewald, a summary of findings, recommendations and further research. An appendix of material upon which the thesis is based upon will form the last portion of the proposed document. Abstract
This sentence will briefly explain the abstract.
The ability to visualize data has grown immensely as the speed and functionality of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have increased. Now, with modeling software and GIS, planners are able to view a prediction of the future traffic demands in their jurisdiction. With the creation of a streamlined interfacing program that seamlessly connects the modeling software and the GIS package, planners can spend less time computing, and more time assessing needs. The interface also provides analytical tools to assist the user in validation and assessment of the traffic model, all of which are executed in a GIS environment. Tools such as the shortest path through the network, time radius from a zone or node, traffic origins and destinations from a select link, and screenline validation have all been completely automated. Once the regional travel demand model has been calibrated and validated in the GIS environment, a portion of the network can be exported to a microsimulation program to run site-specific scenario changes. Another tool being incorporated into the interface is an economic comparison of scenarios. This tool will allow users to assess the impacts of network changes in several key areas. By utilizing the GIS interfaces use of pull-down menus and mouse clicks, activities that were previously time consuming events have become streamlined computer tasks, taking only a fraction of the original time.

LITERATURE REVIEW
This section will contain all appropriate reviewed literature on both the economic analysis material and the quality assurance material. Economic Analysis References
1. Center for Transportation Research and Education, ArcView-Tranplan Interface and Documentation Download, April 18, 2000. http:\\www.ctre.iastate.edu/ Research/enhance/download.html. Accessed May 2, 2000

2. 3. 4.

DeCorla-Souza, Patrick. Estimating Highway Mobility Benefits. Institute of Transportation Engineers. Vol. 70, No. 2, February 2000, pp. 38-43 (See Appendix D for Article) Federal Highway Administration, Surface Transportation Efficiency Analysis Model, October 7, 1999. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/steam/ Accessed February 14, 2000 Urban Analysis Group, Inc., Version 9.0 User Manuals for TRANPLAN and NIS plus Related Programs and Miscellaneous Utilities. Urban Analysis Group, Inc., Hayward, CA, 1998.

Quality Assurance References

PAPER 1
This section will be a paper produced by Dr. Reg Souleyrette, Dr. Shauna Hallmark and Jerry Shadewald. The material of the paper will be the integration of the Federal Highway Administrations economic scenario analysis software program STEAM (Surface Transportation Efficiency Analysis Model) into the Geographic Information System (GIS) ArcView with the travel demand model TRANPLAN. The paper will contain a case study for a small metropolitan area, along with procedures and code to assist users in applying the STEAM program to existing TRANPLAN scenarios. INTRODUCTION
A brief discussion on the need for economic analysis, the need for forecasted volumes of alternatives, the use of GIS, and an introduction into the case study.
The decision to spend tax dollars for infrastructure improvement requires a very detailed investigation into the costs and benefits of each possible alternative. The level of detail typically varies according to the estimated capital cost of the project. Justification of smaller projects can normally be done with very little economic analysis. However, multi-million dollar projects typically require a detailed investigation into the costs and benefits of the project. The costs range from capital and maintenance to environmental, societal to administrative. Benefits typically are a combination of increased access and mobility depending upon the function of the project. Both the costs and benefits must be identified for the entire useful life of the alternative. To provide accurate link by link forecasts of traffic volume for future years, a four-step travel demand model can be used. This paper describes the use of the commercial travel demand model Tranplan. Tranplan is used to produce link speeds and volumes for both the base and alternative scenarios. To perform the Tranplan operations, including visualization and calibration of Tranplan output, an ArcViewTranplan interface has been created at the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE). This interface separately performs all required functions to operate Tranplan for the base and alternative scenarios. The ArcView-Tranplan interface, along with documentation, is available free from the CTRE website (1). The interface then brings all information about the scenarios into one ArcView project, then performs a final Tranplan operation to extract the trip table for each scenario. Finally, the interface formats the input files for use in an economic evaluation program. Once the costs and benefits have been quantified, along with the formatting of all required input files from the interface for each alternative, an economic evaluation can begin. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has produced several software packages that perform an economic analysis based on a base scenario and a corresponding alternative scenario. A discussion of the various FHWA economic programs is discussed in detail in the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) journal (2). The Surface Transportation Efficiency Analysis Model (STEAM) uses network files containing travel speed and traffic volumes, along with trip tables to identify trip origins and destination to calculate traffic impacts due to the

alternative scenario. National default values are incorporated into the software for all calculated costs, such as emission rate, fuel cost and accident cost. All default values are editable, allowing the program to be customized for a particular city, county or state. The STEAM program then conducts a detailed analysis of the costs and benefits between the alternative and base scenarios. A benefit to cost ratio is produced, along with several other scenario comparison values. The STEAM program is also available free of charge at the FHWA website. (3) To provide examples of the use of the ArcView-Tranplan interface, as well as the required input and output for STEAM, a case study for the city of Ames was conducted. The base scenario is the city of Ames street network as it exists today. This scenario is represented by a Tranplan network of links and nodes. The alternative scenario also consists of the Ames Tranplan network, however the north-south arterial Grand Avenue has been extended past its current terminus on Lincoln Way to a proposed terminus at US Highway 30. Figure 2 shows the proposed extension of Grand Avenue shapefile (alt.shp).

ARCVIEW-TRANPLAN INTERFACE
Description of the ArcView-TRANPLAN interface showing the shapefiles used to represent the TRANPLAN network.
As part of a research project at the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE), sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation (IaDOT), and interface between the travel demand model, Tranplan and the geographic information system (GIS), ArcView has been created. This ArcView based interface allows the user to recreate an existing Tranplan network in ArcView or create a new Tranplan with the use of aerial photography within ArcView. Once the Tranplan network of links and nodes has been created, the interface will create control files to be executed by Tranplan in order to perform the traffic forecast. Tranplan is executed by the interface and the output information is returned to the interface to be added to the original Tranplan network. Figure 1 shows the ArcView-Tranplan interface with the Tranplan information added for the base scenario of the Grand Avenue case study. The original Tranplan network, links.shp and nodes.shp, was created from formatted text files containing node coordinates along with link attributes such as speed and capacity. The centroid.shp shapefile contains information about centroid nodes only. The Tranplan output is stored in the ld_links.shp and connect.shp shapefiles. These files contain the original link attributes from the links.shp shapefile, along with the Tranplan output of forecasted link speeds and volumes. Figure 1 ArcView-Tranplan Interface containing Tranplan Network and Tranplan Output

SCENARIO COMPARISON
Description of the scenario comparison tool including the instructions on loading the alternative scenario and buffering volume differences.
Load New Scenario Instructions on the loading of an alternative scenarios ArcView shapefiles containing TRANPLAN output data. One of the features that has been automated through the use of the ArcView-Tranplan interface is the scenario comparison. To use this tool, a Tranplan run must be completed for both the base and alternative scenarios. The comparison is initiated by selecting the Load New Scenario option under the Scenario Comparison pull-down menu in the ArcView-Tranplan interface. This pull-down menu is shown in Figure 2, along with the shapefiles used for the Grand Avenue case study. The user is then prompted to select the loaded links shapefile (ld_links.shp) from the working directory of the alternative scenario. A new set of shapefiles (Scenario 1 and Scenario 1 Connectors) is created which correspond to the alternatives loaded links and connector shapefiles.

PAPER 2
This section will be a paper produced by Dr. Reg Souleyrette, Dr. Gary Thomas and Jerry Shadewald. The content of the paper will be quality assurance of traditional four-step travel demand models through the use of the Geographic Information System (GIS) ArcView. The travel demand package to be used for this paper will be TRANPLAN. Procedures and computer code will assist users in performing quality analysis of on existing TRANPLAN models within the ArcView environment.

SUMMARY
An overall summary of the benefits of incorporating the procedures and tools described in the previous two papers into common planning practice.

APPENDIX A
Appendix A will contain the Users Manual and portions of the Visual Basic and Avenue code written for the ArcView-TRANPLAN interface created by Dr. Reg Souleyrette, Richard Storm and Jerry Shadewald for the Iowa Department of Transportation. This interface will form the base platform upon which both the STEAM program integration and the quality assurance procedures will be based. Copies of both the ArcView-TRANPLAN interface program and Users Manual can be downloaded from the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) website at http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/Research/enhance/index.html.

APPENDIX B
Appendix B will contain the Users Manual for the Federal Highway Administrations (FHWA) Surface Transportation Efficiency Analysis Model (STEAM), along with selected code used to integrate STEAM with ArcView and TRANPLAN. The STEAM program can be downloaded free of charge at the FHWA website at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/steam/