How to go on when you wish to model a transport system for planning and project evaluation

What is it about?

This book presents the most important transport modelling techniques in a form accessible to students and practitioners alike. We attempt this by giving particular emphasis to key topics in contemporary modelling and planning: _ the practical importance of theoretical consistency in transport modelling; _ the issues of data and specification errors in modelling, their relative importance and methods to handle them; _ the key role played by the decision-making context in the choice of the most appropriate modelling tool; _ how uncertainty and risk influence the choice of the most appropriate modelling tool; _ the advantages of variable resolution modelling; a simplified background model coupled with a much more detailed one addressing the decision questions in hand; _ the need for a monitoring function relying on regular data collection and updating of forecasts and models so that courses of action can be adapted to a changing environment. We have approached the subject from the point of view of a modelling exercise, discussing the role of theory, data, model specification in its widest sense, model estimation, validation and forecasting. Our aim in writing this book was to create both a text for a diploma or Master’s course in transport and a reference volume for practitioners; however, the material is presented in such a way as to be useful for undergraduate courses in civil engineering, geography and town planning. The book is based on our lecture notes prepared and improved over several years of teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels; we have also used them to teach practitioners both through in-house training programmes and short skills-updating courses. We have extended and enhanced our lecture notes to cover additional material and to help the reader tackling the book without the support of a supervisor.

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