ABSTRACT
Computers are an integral part of the transportation planning process, and advances in this field have invariably been paralleled by the evolution of digital computer technology. The most significant development in the field of traffic assignment by computer occurred in 1957 with the work of E. F. Moore on the theory of switching. The development of larger computers, capable of carrying out calculations and data manipulation at very high speeds, had a marked effect in the field of transportation planning. The development of simple programming languages such as Cobol and Fortran allowed the transportation planner to write his or her own programs for specific jobs. Larger core storage facilities ensured that extensive and complex transportation networks could be studied relatively easily. The standard card in use is the eighty-column card, which has twelve rows each with its numerical significance. Alphabetical characters are represented by a simple extension of the numeric code.
