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

  • CO₂ mitigation measures for transport ‘will not achieve climate ambitions’
    January 31, 2017
    Current and foreseeable policies to mitigate carbon-dioxide (CO₂) emissions from global transport activity will not suffice to achieve the international community’s climate ambitions, according to a new study published by the International Transport Forum (ITF). Continued strong growth in demand for mobility means that even in the most optimistic scenario, transport CO₂ emissions in 2050 will still be at 2015 levels of around 7.5 giga-tonnes, according to projections published in the ITF Transport Outlook 2
    Read More
  • Better websites build smarter transport participation
    March 17, 2017
    Transport initiatives are gaining traction through well-designed websites. Four European smart transport-oriented websites have gained honours in the 2016 .eu Web Awards, an online competition inaugurated in 2014 to recognise the most impressive sites within the .eu internet domain in terms of their design and content. The four were among 15 finalists across all five categories of the scheme, giving the transport sector a high profile for its proactive use of sites as communications tools for driving major
    Read More
  • Pioneering new passenger information systems
    February 3, 2012
    Chicago pioneers new passenger information initiatives. By David Crawford
    Read More
  • Why integrated traffic management needs a cohesive approach
    April 10, 2012
    Traffic control is increasingly being viewed as one essential element of a wider ‘system of systems’ – the smart city. Jason Barnes, Jon Masters and David Crawford report on latest ideas and efforts for making cities ‘smarter’ Virtually every element of the fabric and utilitarian operations that make urban areas tick can now be found somewhere in the mix that is the ‘smart city’ agenda. Ideas have expanded and projects pursued in different directions as the rhetoric on making cities ‘smarter’ has grown. App
    Read More

Highlighted Content