Cycling and walking module of PTV Visum, Vissim and Viswalk

Summary

Up until now, cycling and walking are usually less prevalent in current modelling tools, even though an increasing awareness of their importance can be observed. Significant improvement is needed in data availability about existing cycling and walking infrastructure, as well as cycling and walking behaviour.

Furthermore, the development of methods to model cycling and walking in all relevant situations (including sharing systems) is also essential. The scope of the conducted software developments that comprise these tools was to overcome these identified shortcomings.

The developments include the extension of the macroscopic travel demand model PTV Visum (15 and 16), and the improvement of features of the microscopic transport simulation software PTV Vissim/Viswalk (8 and 9).

Thereby, the following functionalities and features were developed:

• Introducing vehicle sharing systems in PTV Visum
• Enhanced stochastic assignment for cycle route choice in PTV Visum
• Improved modelling of interaction between vehicles and pedestrians in PTV Vissim/Viswalk

The developments took place in close cooperation with the FLOW partner cities, including the calibration and validation process. These latest software versions with the new features are deployed in the cities to analyse and evaluate the impacts of their various walking and cycling measures accurately, with a special focus on the congestion reduction benefits.