Transmaterial

TRANSIMS

The Transportation Analysis and Simulation System, or TRANSIMS, is an integrated system of travel forecasting models designed to give transportation planners accurate, complete information on traffic impacts, congestion, and pollution. Los Alamos National Laboratory is leading this effort to develop new transportation and air quality forecasting procedures required by the Clean Air Act, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, and other regulations. It is part of the Travel Model Improvement Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Energy.

TRANSIMS models create a virtual metropolitan region with a complete representation of the region's individuals, their activities, and the transportation infrastructure. Trips are planned to satisfy the individuals' activity patterns. TRANSIMS then simulates the movement of individuals across the transportation network, including their use of vehicles such as cars or buses, on a second-by-second basis. This virtual world of travelers mimics the traveling and driving behavior of real people in the region. The interactions of individual vehicles produce realistic traffic dynamics from which analysts using TRANSIMS can estimate vehicle emissions and judge the overall performance of the transportation system. [Excerpted from the Transims website.]

posted by Blaine @ 11:58 AM