Introducing rubber-banding for transport planning

Software and consulting group PTV has launched a new version of its transport planning software, Visum 14, with major new functionality, including what the company calls ‘rubber-banding’, which enables users to realistically model spontaneous detours. "With rubber-banding, starting point and main activity as well as intermediate stops are connected with, metaphorically speaking, a rubber band," explains Dr.-Ing. Johannes Schlaich, director of PTV Visum Product Management and Services. "The stronger the r
August 19, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Software and consulting group 3264 PTV has launched a new version of its transport planning software, Visum 14, with major new functionality, including what the company calls ‘rubber-banding’, which enables users to realistically model spontaneous detours.

"With rubber-banding, starting point and main activity as well as intermediate stops are connected with, metaphorically speaking, a rubber band," explains Dr.-Ing. Johannes Schlaich, director of PTV Visum Product Management and Services. "The stronger the rubber band, the more likely it is for example, that the shops in the activity chain Home-Work-Shopping-Home are situated on the route between home and work."

Other features include distributed computing which allows users to distribute scenarios across multiple computers in order to calculate them in parallel with one another. PTV Visum 14 makes it possible to use distributed computing outside the scenario management. Selected procedures such as private and public transport assignments and Visum calculations of different demand strata can now be calculated on different computers in parallel. Once completed, the results from the different computation nodes are automatically merged.

PTV Visum 14's public transport (PuT) timetable editor has been completely updated and now includes several requested functions, such as the ability to freely edit the stop sequence using a graphical editor. In addition, the new incremental PuT-importer ensures rapid importing and updating of PuT supply from one file version to another.

"The new PuT-importer does not only allow the transfer of PuT supply completely into a street and rail network, but also replaces or supplements existing elements of an existing PuT network," explains Schlaich. "This represents a huge reduction in the modeller's workload, particularly when it comes to regular timetable updates."

GIS/ Mapping & Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • PTV’s software solutions help cities combat congestion and pollution
    January 25, 2018
    Smart cities must rely on a mobility mix, real-time predictive models and collaborations, argues PTV’s Miller Crockart. Transport is reaching a new frontier and cities are at the forefront of the trend: for many urbanites, mobility no longer equals a privately-owned vehicle. They want on-demand services that cater for their individual mobility needs efficiently and sustainably - whether that is shared bikes or autonomous electric vehicles. Private car ownership will not drop overnight. The smooth
    Read More
  • Smarter transport remains key to smart cities
    January 9, 2018
    Colin Sowman looks at some of the challenges and solutions that will provide enhanced transport efficiency in tomorrow’s smarter cities. However you define a ‘smart city’, one of the key ingredients will be an efficient transport system. As most governments and city authorities face financial constraints, incremental improvements in the existing systems is the most likely way forward. In London, new trains and signalling are improving the capacity of the Underground but that then reveals previously
    Read More
  • Developing ‘next generation’ traffic control centre technology
    July 4, 2012
    The Rijkswaterstaat and Highways Agency have joined forces to investigate what the market can do to realise an idealistic vision for traffic control centre technology. Jon Masters reports One particular seminar session of the Intertraffic show in Amsterdam in March was notably over subscribed. So heavy was the press to attend that your author, making his way over late from another appointment, could not get in and found himself craning over other heads locked outside to overhear what was being said. The
    Read More
  • Development of cooperative driving applications for work zones
    July 17, 2012
    The German AKTIV project is researching several cooperative driving applications for use in work zones. PTV's Michael Ortgiese details progress. The steep increases in traffic volumes predicted back in the early 1990s have unfortunately been proven to be more than accurate. In Germany, the AKTIV project continues to look into cooperative technologies' potential to reduce the impact of those increased traffic volumes and keep traffic moving despite limitations in infrastructure capacity.
    Read More

Highlighted Content