1: TRAFFIC TRANSPORTATION MODELLING

1:

TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION MODELLING

Sponsored by:

40 years of transport modelling software and support

Transport starts taking place the moment you leave your doorstep or order your goods. It is a fundamental need and human activity, and is mutually related to other important activities such as socialising, trading and having fun. Any significant changes in such activities can have a dramatic impact on transport and vice versa. As a result, the transport industry has become one of the most important industries in the world, and one that all of us are directly involved in.

Considering the importance of transport in our lives, one would expect transport planning to be one of the most respected, popular and rewarded professions; the kind of profession that our mothers and fathers would be proud for their children to enter. Unfortunately, we are still far from this and, dare I say, at times we have been heading in the opposite direction. In my personal experience, people outside the relatively small world of our profession that touches so many people’s lives, are still completely unaware of what we do.

Transport modelling is an even more difficult concept to explain. Due to its intricate nature, which involves being able to help answer complex transport questions, it is often misunderstood or even avoided due to lack of understanding, skills or budget. In my opinion, and I appreciate some may think it is biased, transport modelling is the most exciting tool that can help transport planners with analytical thinking and support both planners and decision makers in robust decision-making.

One way or another, transport planners and transport models have improved the lives of many people around the world. For example, many famous landmarks in the UK and around the world have been redesigned into people-friendly places by transport planners with the help of transport models. Looking back at my own career, I am happy to have worked in well-respected consultancy firms promoting sound and sustainable transport projects. I worked with amazing mentors, teams developed transport models for projects that were implemented to improve the lives of thousands or, in some cases, millions of people. I have been practicing transport modelling from day one and my current position at PTV Group, a global leading company in transport modelling software, has helped me appreciate our transport modelling community even more.

A few bright researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology set up PTV Group 40 years ago. Over the years, the PTV Group team created the amazing software tools and technology that is being used by transport planners and modellers all over the world today. The PTV software portfolio is presented in this directory, but each piece of software has its own story to tell, and we wish each software tool could talk to us and tell us stories of how it was used by talented transport planners on amazing projects around the world. Sadly, it would not be possible to fit these stories into this or any other directory. The same could also be said for many other software suites featured here, but I can only talk about PTV.

The role of transport modelling software is to enable planners to develop digital replicas of the transport system to use as a tool for analysis and decision-making. Having such software available ‘off the shelf’ offers many benefits including lower costs and quicker model development, transparency and consistency in sharing results, transferability of skills within user communities, support from a professional maintenance and training team, continuous future development and much more. PTV software also allows bespoke extensions via user defined data layers and attributes, and interfaces with powerful external programming software. This PTV philosophy provides all the advantages of specialist off the shelf transport modelling software and maximises the flexibility with advanced interfaces with other software and programming tools.

Each PTV software incorporates a wide range of tools and features embedded into its code, created by transport planners and software developers from PTV Group with

feedback from software users among the public and private sector. Those of you not involved in the process can imagine the passion, effort, and endless discussions that have eventually shaped and resulted in the toolset and features in the software code. Every piece of code has a purpose, and collectively provides a holistic tool for transport planners. The main motivation of the founders, and of everyone at PTV Group, is to empower transport professionals with the right tools to create a cleaner, smarter and better future for everyone. If in any doubt, check PTV Group’s website or ask my colleagues, you can put them on the spot with this question and I believe they will all say the same thing.

At PTV Group, even though we are proud of what we have created, as you can clearly see from reading so far, we also appreciate and acknowledge that software is a tool, and it is people that make the difference. As professionals in our industry develop their careers, from practicing transport modelling to management and leadership positions, they are often unable to practice transport modelling handson, or on a day-to-day basis. This natural progression in our careers creates a need to replenish the profession and its ranks with new highly skilled practitioners.

The organisations we work in, whether consultancy or software developer, public sector authority or private sector, university or academic institution, all have an important role to play in creating the right environment to enable the acquisition and training of the transport modellers of the future. We all need to do our share, and to personally invest in winning new talent for our industry.

In PTV Group we invest our time and software into collaboration with academic institutions, and help introduce transport planning and modelling to students as a research tool and a career option. Hundreds of university students and MSc/PhD researchers every year in the UK and Ireland use PTV software. We organise lectures and special training courses to help students learn transport modelling and simulation. Our investment pays off every time as new talent is brought into to our profession; recently this is happening much more often. We have also set up a scientific advisory board to ensure that we do not overlook key trends in academic research from across the globe. The academic roots of the company played an important role in setting up and maintaining this culture over the years, and placing it firmly within our future vision.

If software developers do not pay attention to the needs and requests of the users, they cannot remain successful. Innovation is important and it requires an investment not only from the software developers, which we do via internal research and development, but also from users and clients. We are happy to have the chance to collaborate and co-invest on innovative transport modelling applications together with our clients and their clients.

We work on a collaborative project between the transport and energy industry creating an integrated transport and electricity planning capability for electric vehicles. We work on projects with a collaborative effort of transport modellers, ITS engineers and policy makers in creating a real-time transport model to aid decision- making in traffic control centres. We are also working on many other innovative applications of our software, together with our users and clients across the public transport sector too. Such effort and investments help us to incorporate and share the innovation with all PTV software users.

For us innovation does not mean re-inventing the wheel, or creating something from scratch. We are creating the software tools of the future, in collaboration with our clients and partners, by researching and constantly developing new features and capability. This includes modelling Mobility as a Service, electrification, active modes and micromobility, automotive technology, activity-based modelling, enhanced transparency and visualisation, intuitive cloud-based solutions, software as a service and many more technological innovations and improvements. We provide the tools for transport modellers to collaborate, innovate and create a better world. n

Devrim Kara, Director UK & Ireland, PTV Group

Software: Cadence

Cadence is an award-winning suite of data management and modelling tools for transport planners and modellers.

The solution comprises: l Award-winning data visualisation and stakeholder engagement l Rich, curated data layers relevant to the needs of modern transport strategies, including support for active travel, electrification and decarbonisation l Version-controlled data management for robust transport model and plan development l Web-based simulation and scenario testing l Visualisation and analysis of demand flows, travel times and accessibility l Support for road, public transport and active travel data

Cadence can provide additional support for modelling workflows through data pipelines and APIs to an extensive library of modelling algorithms.

Contact Laurence Oakes-Ash info@cityscience.com www.dat-stats.cityscience.com EVR is helping light commercial fleets switch from combustion engines to plug-in electric vehicles.

By knowing the key factors that affect battery life, EVR removes range anxiety by accurately routing electric vehicles to ensure they have enough energy to return on one full charge.

With the ability to compare all engine types, EVR provides detailed financial and emission savings giving you the confidence to switch your fleet of vehicles to electric.

Simply go onto the website and input your vehicles, depot location, drop off addresses, parcel weight and dimensions to see optimised routes.

These full routes can be downloaded and loaded straight into many modern route guidance devices and phones.

EVR has a free tier which can be accessed by all.

Contact Shereine Swindon info@evrouting.com 01483 688 470 www.evrouting.com

Software: Emme

Emme is used around the world to implement mobility models which allow planners a virtual laboratory in which to test the impacts and interactions of transport policy, demographics and urban geography on available transport infrastructure including roads, traffic, public transit, fares and other modes of travel. By modelling the people, places, processes and options involved in travel, transport planners can forecast transport system performance, accessibility and equity, and evaluate any number of virtual scenarios or interventions to better inform real world planning decisions.

Contact Steve Perone steve@inrosoftware.com +15143692023 www.inrosoftware.com

Software: Visual-tm

Visual-tm is a complete transport modelling software suite that is fully integrated into one comprehensive User Interface (UI) for building, calibrating, validating and running transport models, and for analysing their output. It can be used for industry-standard models or the new agent and activity-based models. It automatically connects supply with demand, iterating between them until convergence – itʼs all set up for you. It includes all the tools transport planners need to develop effective transport plans to make sure transport ideas really work in practice. It has a simple-to-use, fully visual, Windows-driven UI to improve efficiency, wizards to guide you through setting your model up, a manual and help options. It outputs to spreadsheets and csv files so you can connect it to your reports and processes. Its designed-in connectivity ensures model consistency. It is now in its third decade of successful use. Visual-tm comprises the following fully-integrated modules:

l Visual Networks for highway and public transport assignment, with capacity restraint including the method of successive averages (MSA), junction delay and overcrowding. It has all the usual features you would want for transport network modelling, display and analysis. It has a special Park & Ride (P&R) assignment which couples with our P&R choice model to provide coherent P&R modelling. It is connected to the demand model with intelligent skimming, which takes account of whether modes are used or not. Prepare, view and analyse your networks with Google or Open Street Maps.

l Visual Choice for multi-mode variable demand modelling using industry-standard choice nests of hierarchical logit models. Its simple yet powerful UI lets you define your demand model in minutes, displaying all its calculations transparently so you are in control. It is properly structured to carry the logsums up the nest, disable alternatives that arenʼt available, match workers to jobs and car drivers to parking spaces. Its logit model estimation lets you estimate: multinomial, nested, cross-nested, mixed and latent class logit. Its stated preference lets you measure peopleʼs decisions with fractional factorial or efficient designs. It covers all the TAG choices: trip frequency, time-of-day, mode, destination and peak spreading, plus many more.

l Visual Agent for Agent and Activity Based Modelling. This is a complete system for modelling every individual agent within a whole population, including the hierarchy of dependent choices they each can make, so as to represent peopleʼs actual activity behaviour. Models include: Population Synthesiser, Activity

Generator, Activity Scheduler, Tour/ Trip Generator and generic choice models. It acts at fine levels of geography, down to individual buildings with building and car park choice, and even down to individual parking spaces. It even does agent-based assignment.

And itʼs still fast – very fast

Contact Adam or Peter mail@peter-davidson.com 01442 879 075 www.peter-davidson.com

PTV Group provides software solutions and services that integrate all aspects of transport and logistics planning and optimisation, to create and promote a smarter and more sustainable future. Customers in more than 120 countries and 2,500 cities rely on state-of-the-art PTV software that enable planners, engineers and decision-makers to improve transport networks and spaces, reduce congestion and emissions, improve safety and protect the environment.

With headquarters in the city of Karlsruhe, Germanyʼs technology region, and offices in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, PTV Group is innovating globally since its foundation in 1979 as a Karlsruhe University of Technology (KIT) spin-off. With 900 employees worldwide working on powerful, future-oriented solutions, the latest developments in science, technology and research are continuously incorporated PTV Software development to help create intelligent and ecofriendly mobility for everyone.

Contact Devrim Kara devrim.kara@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/ With more than 40 years of experience built in, PTV Visum is the worldʼs leading transport planning and modelling software incorporating demand modelling, highway assignment, public transport assignment, GIS capability and much more, all in one software. It offers a multiresolution modelling capability with built-in dynamic traffic assignment on macroscopic and mesoscopic levels. PTV Visum can utilise multicore and distributed computer processing with advanced capability of OD matrix estimation, emissions modelling, traffic signal optimisation, toll modelling, advanced public transport demand, timetable, rolling stock capacity, revenue and fares, activity-based modelling and much more.

PTV Visum offers a digital replica of mobility, land use and socio-demographics for gaining a deeper insight into the transport challenges of today, and for studying future ʻwhat-ifʼ transport scenarios at a strategic level for cities, regions, countries or even a continent. It is a connected data hub for fusion, analytics and embedded GIS that can be used to plan strategies for future mobility and to inform cost-benefit appraisal for new infrastructure, land use development, public transport operations, and shared mobility.

PTV Visum integrates with PTV Vissim for the generation of microsimulation models, has an intuitive user interface, comes with extensive selfstudy material and has a continuously growing community of users worldwide in public sector, consultancy, transport operators, researchers, universities and students worldwide.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ ptv-visum/

PTV Vissim is the leading microscopic simulation software for modelling multimodal transport operations. It is used by transport planners and traffic engineers for quantitative assessment, visualisation and optimisation of road geometry, traffic control, public transport, active modes, airports, automotive, and many more. It is used in more than 2,500 cities globally, with many transport projects and improvements benefiting from itsʼ powerful capability.

With its unique links and connectors concept, PTV Vissim can map a network and geometry in detail. With its scientifically-proven traffic flow, lane-changing and merging behaviours, it can simulate complex vehicle interactions realistically on a microscopic, mesoscopic and hybrid level. PTV Vissim offers dynamic and static assignment and interfaces for external signal controllers, emissions models and vehicle-actuated programming. Its multi-modal simulation capability of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians, and the extensive quantitative data and 2D/3D visualisation output, make it a powerful tool for transport project engineering and consultations with decision-makers and the public.

PTV Vissim integrates with PTV Visum, Viswalk and Vistro, is quick and easy to use, comes with extensive self-study material and has a continuously growing community of users in the public sector, consultancy, automotive, research organisations, universities and students worldwide.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ ptv-vissim/ PTV Viswalk is the leading software for pedestrian simulation, based on the scientifically proven ʻsocial forceʼ model. It reproduces a realistic representation of human walking behaviour and crowd flow movements. It is used by transport planners, architects, building and event managers and fire engineers for analysis, visualisation and optimisation of pedestrian movements and space. It is particularly wellsuited for urban and construction planning, pedestrian safety planning, evacuation measures, public transport stations and interchanges, major events and numerous other project applications for the planning and design of smooth flow of pedestrians and crowds.

PTV Viswalk can be used on its own for pedestrian and crowd flow simulation, or it can be combined in the same software environment as PTV Vissim for a multi-modal simulation of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians, including interactions between modes.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ ptv-viswalk/

PTV Vistro is a complete traffic analysis solution, giving you all the tools necessary to complete traffic engineering and transportation planning studies and evaluations of isolated intersections and networks of intersections with priority, roundabout and signal control. With PTV Vistro, you can evaluate development impacts, optimise and re-time traffic signals, evaluate intersection levels of service and generate report-ready tables and figures. This makes it a useful tool for many different types of traffic and transportation studies, saving you time through its allencompassing functionality.

With PTV Vistro you can also evaluate the impact of new developments, test mitigation options, manage multiple scenarios, visualise results in a 2D network representation or graphical output, create report ready templates, export to PTV Vissim microsimulation, evaluate the need for a new traffic signal junction and much more.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ ptv-vistro/ PTV Optima is a traffic management decision support tool that combines advanced traffic modelling techniques with real-time transport data. PTV Optima fuses the transport model developed in PTV Visum with real-time data such as traffic flows, vehicle speeds, queues, journey times from any type of sensors such as inductive loop detectors, number plate and image recognition cameras, floating vehicle and GPS data, mobile phone data and much more. PTV Optima can accurately predict the real-time traffic state every 5-minutes, and can simulate in a rolling horizon of 5-minutes, to identify the impact of incidents and the extent of the queues and the delays in the next 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Simulations can also be run to test the effectiveness of selected mitigation scenarios for dealing with planned and unplanned incidents such as accidents and roadworks.

The real-time traffic state estimation by PTV Optima is more accurate than observed real-time data or statistical methods alone. The transport model helps propagate the real-time data geographically, to locations and times of the day when there is no real-time data available. PTV Optima also allows the testing and evaluation of what-if scenarios, which may not be possible with data and statistical methods alone.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ ptv-optima/

VISTAD

PTV Vistad is a tool that can store, validate, visualise and analyse traffic accident data on a map. It can map and filter the accident data geographically and according to numerous characteristics of the accident dataset, and can even store and visualise the digital schematic of each accident. It has standard and configurable accident data importers for the automatic import of accident datasets, and offers safety experts all the necessary functions for local accident investigation.

Analysts can search for thematic accident clusters that can be pre-sorted and ranked based on the accident severity or vehicle type. The standardised data interface is well-suited for collaborative working between local, regional and national transport authorities and the police and emergency services attending accidents. The central data storage allows the concurrent access and analysis of up-to-date accident data by all users, with individually configurable access rights. PTV Vistad also offers an extensive set of configurable print-ready reports which can be used to detect trends and quickly assess the success of measures taken.

PTV Vistad is integrated with PTV Visum, offering the opportunity for a combined analysis of the transport model and accident data, which can offer additional insights and the ability of predictive safety analysis.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ptvvistad/

MAAS MODELLER

PTV MaaS Modeller is a cloud-based solution combined with a PTV Visum transport model to assess Mobility as a Service concepts and scenarios. It can help calculate the performance of a MaaS fleet from the operatorʼs business case perspective against pre-determined performance indicators such as fleet size, passenger occupancy, journey time and fares. It can also quantify the impact of the MaaS fleet from the transport authority perspective in terms of its interaction with the rest of the multi-modal transport system, congestion, competition with other modes and societal and economic impacts.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/mobilitynext/

PTV Epics and PTV Balance are adaptive traffic signal control software tools that continually optimise the switching of traffic lights at single intersections and across entire networks. They react to the live traffic conditions on the roads and manage capacity efficiently with the most appropriate signal timings, thus reducing delays and improving road safety for all modes of transport.

PTV Epics is for isolated intersections optimising traffic signal settings every second, for the next 100 seconds, based on detector data, queue lengths, cyclic flow profiles and public transport, pedestrian, and cycling priority requirements. Many features of PTV Epics, including mode priority, is user configurable. PTV Epics is ready for the future of mobility and the next level of traffic management by providing vital information for V2X-enabled traffic lights, taking V2X-equipped vehicles as data sources, and offering pre-emption to emergency vehicles via V2X-messages.

PTV Balance utilises a macroscopic traffic model that estimates network traffic flows in accordance with detector data, a control model and a mesoscopic traffic flow model, to calculate the effects of a specific signal plan and, most importantly, different optimisation algorithms. PTV Balance measures current traffic conditions to then adjust and optimise green time splits, offsets and cycle times for entire networks every five minutes – preventing long queues and blocking back at junctions.

Contact sales.uk@ptvgroup.com 0121 585 6633 www.ptvgroup.com/en/solutions/products/ptvepics-and-ptv-balance/ Software: SPATIAL

VLC Spatial is a robust yet simple land use model that integrates readily with existing strategic transport models. By embedding microeconomic models in a simplified general equilibrium setting, VLC Spatial predicts the behavioural choices of people and firms; considering transport costs, wages and rents, and amenities such as access to schools.

Less data-intensive than most land use transport interaction models, key parameters are readily estimated using local data from the Census and the relevant strategic transport model. Together, these features give VLC Spatial robust economic foundations that link to appraisal, while remaining efficient to develop, maintain, and apply.

VLC Spatial has been used to support strategic long-term planning, such as preliminary business cases for major programmes and projects, especially those that seek to shape the urban form.

Contact Tom van Vuren tom.vanvuren@veitchlister.com www.veitchlister.com

Software: Zenith

Zenith is Veitch Lister Consultingʼs suite of strategic transport models. We have developed Zenith models for all major metropolitan regions across Australia. They have been used by state and local governments for more than 30 years in the planning of public transport, major infrastructure projects and land use changes. Zenith models are multi-modal and demand responsive, based within the Emme software platform.

Spatial model transferability is an underpinning feature of Zenith, maximising data efficiency and robustness, but also allowing us to re-use previous code and subroutines to build models quickly. Zenith makes extensive use of readily available national data sources such as the Census. We are proud of our in-house developed public transport and toll-road assignment methods, which have been proven to give excellent forecast results.

Contact Tom van Vuren tom.vanvuren@veitchlister.com www.veitchlister.com Software: SATURN

SATURN is the de-facto standard highway equilibrium modelling software in the UK. It has been continuously developed over the last 40 years by Atkins, Dr Dirck Van Vliet and the University of Leeds. SATURN continues to set industry-leading performance for both model convergence and runtimes.

Contact Mara Hunt mara.hunt@atkinsglobal.com 01372 756 755 www.saturnsoftware.co.uk

Software: Immense

Immense is a turnkey and highly-scalable mobility simulation platform. It supports decision-making by enabling the assessment of mobility scenarios on-thefly using intelligent digital worlds. Immense is trusted by global automotive manufacturers, fleet operators, transport authorities, and energy providers that are navigating uncertain futures.

Contact Luke Rust luke.rust@immense.ai www.immense.ai

AIMSUN

Product: Aimsun mobility modelling Contact: Nadia Feddo nadia.feddo@aimsun.com www.aimsun.com

ANYLOGIC

Product: AnyLogic – Road traffic simulation software Contact: aanand@dseconsulting.co.uk www.anylogic.com/road-traffic

AUTOTURN

Product: AutoTURN – Vehicle swept path analysis Contact: support@transoftsolutions.com www.autoturnonline.com

BENTLEY SYSTEMS

Product: CUBE Contact: Oliver Charlesworth oliver.charlesworth@bentley.com www.bentley.com/en/products/brands/cube

BOX5 TRANSPORT CONSULTANTS

Product: Mimas Contact: Reynold Greenlaw reynold.greenlaw@oxfordcc.co.uk www.mimas.services

CALIPER

Product: TransCAD – Americaʼs most popular transportation planning software with traffic signals, TIA, modelling and visualisation Contact: sales@caliper.com www.caliper.com/tcovu.htm

CALIPER

Product: TransModeler – Microscopic, mesoscopic and hybrid traffic simulation software Contact: sales@caliper.com www.caliper.com/tcovu.htm

CITI LOGIK LIMITED

Product: Mobile Network Data Contact: Mark Hawkins mark.hawkins@citilogik.com www.citilogik.com

DAT

Product: OmniTRANS – Multi-modal transport modelling Contact: Stefan de Graaf sdgraaf@dat.nl www.dat.nl/en/solutions/transport-modellingomnitrans

DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT

Product: DIADEM Contact: Tara Tanoz-Sargeant tasm@dft.gov.uk www.tagsoftware.co.uk/link-page/DIADEM

DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT

Product: TEMPro Contact: Tara Tanoz-Sargeant tasm@dft.gov.uk www.tagsoftware.co.uk/link-page/TEMPro

JCT CONSULTANCY LTD

Product: LinSig Contact: Anthony Gerundini sales@jctconsultancy.co.uk www.jctconsultancy.co.uk

PARAMIC (SYSTRA)

Product: Paramics Microsimulation – Traffic modelling software to design, evaluate and present solution Contact: Malcolm Calvert or Fiona Denoon mclavert@systra.com | fdenoon@systra.com www.paramics.com

PARAMIC (SYSTRA)

Product: Paramics Discovery 24 – 3D Traffic Simulation Contact: Malcolm Calvert or Fiona Denoon mclavert@systra.com | fdenoon@systra.com www.paramics.com

TRICS CONSORTIUM LIMITED

Product: TRICS Database Contact: Nick Rabbets nick.rabbets@trics.org www.trics.org

INNOVATION IS AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO.

Bringing 35 years of international experience to the UK, we leverage cutting-edge data sources and technologies to provide expertise and custom solutions to complex transport problems.

Planwisely

OUR EXPERTISE:

›Transport analytics and forecasting › Economics, policy and planning › Future mobility › Spatial analysis and visualisation › Out-of-home advertising audience measurement › Software and data science

OUR SOLUTIONS:

A cloud-based mapping platform designed to help planners, analysts, policymakers and stakeholders produce more informed outcomes for their cities and communities.

Zenith

Our suite ofstrategic transport models, used by governments for over 30 years are multi-modal, demand responsive, leverage spatial model transferability and based within Emme.

Spatial

A robust yet simple land use model that integrates with any existing strategic transport model and its economic foundation provides a natural link to appraisal.