Transportation investments shape how our region grows, the accessibility of jobs and services, and the success of our Title VI goals. We use advanced transportation models to understand existing travel patterns and forecast how they may change over time. This helps us make informed decisions in the Regional Plan. Transportation models also help planners and decision-makers evaluate transportation investments and allocate resources appropriately, and they support required environmental analysis.
The SANDAG Transportation Model
The SANDAG transportation model is an activity-based model (ABM). This state-of-the-art approach simulates the daily travel decisions of individuals and households capturing all types of trips including commuting to work or school, shopping, healthcare visits, and recreation. By modeling these activities, the ABM provides an analytical platform to test different scenarios and answer critical questions about when, where, and how people travel. Because it captures a complete picture of people's daily activity patterns, the ABM provides a realistic model of travel behavior and how it may respond to changes in land use, population, transportation infrastructure, pricing, or policy.
The SANDAG ABM accounts for diverse travel markets across the region. It models the travel of local residents and visitors, people moving across our region's borders, airport passengers in San Diego and at the border, and commercial and freight movement. The SANDAG ABM provides a transparent, data-driven foundation for evaluating alternatives and planning for a sustainable, connected future. The ABM is updated as needed for major planning projects.
- ABM3, the most recent version with a base year or 2022, was designed for use in the 2025 Regional Plan.
- ABM2+ had a base year of 2016 and was used for the 2021 Regional Plan.
- ABM2 had a base year of 2016 and was used for the 2019 Federal Regional Transportation Plan.
- ABM1 had a base year of 2012 and was used for the 2015 Plan.