NCHRP Report 187, "Quick-Response Urban Travel Estimation Techniques and Transferable Parameters" was published in 1978. This report and its default data were used widely, in one form or another, in a very large number of transportation studies. It has served as an invaluable travel-data source. However, uncertainty exists as to how much use is still made of the manual techniques presented, and the reader is not referred to the desktop computer-planning programs that became available subsequently. Most importantly, most of the default data are based on data-collection efforts conducted in the 1960s and early 1970s. This brings into question the validity of the various travel parameter values and their variability. The basic methodology of NCHRP Report 187 needed to be reassessed to determine the sensitivity of its output to more up-to-date values of input variables.

The objectives of this research were to (1) identify and evaluate current and anticipated trends and issues in travel behavior, urban structure, and the transportation planning tools that will be needed to address them and (2) develop a replacement for NCHRP Report 187, with emphasis on small-and medium-sized urban areas.

In 1995, an additional phase of work was performed to further validate trip generation rates and the trip distribution methodology. The case study was also moved to each individual chapter.

All research has been completed, and the final report has been published as NCHRP Report 365, Travel Estimation Techniques for Urban Planning. In May 2012, TRB released NCHRP Report 716, Travel Demand Forecasting: Parameters and Techniques, which is an update to NCHRP Report 365.