UC Davis researchers have harnessed detailed household information with a new method to predict future travel needs. Former graduate student Konstandinos G. Goulias, now an assistant professor of civil engineering at Pennsylvania State University, and UC Davis civil engineering professor Ryuichi Kitamura recently modeled the transportation needs of 1,500 Dutch households through the year 2010. Their dynamic model takes advantage of new, more sophisticated data collection techniques that incorporate such details as household income, number of drivers, marriages, divorces, employment, unemployment, growing children and even broader social and economic parameters. Their results for The Netherlands fell between two previous models, but the researchers predicted more transit use. "We anticipate we will be able to do this in this country," says Kitamura, who chairs the TRB Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values. Goulias will present the paper at session No. 23 at 8:30 a.m., Monday, Jan. 13, at the Washington Hilton Hotel.