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Towards an Agent-Based Model of Passenger Transportation

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Multi-Agent Based Simulation XVI (MABS 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9568))

Abstract

An agent-based simulation model for supporting the decision making in urban transport planning is presented. The model can be used to investigate how different transport infrastructure investments and policy instruments will affect the travel choices of passengers. We identified four main categories of factors influencing the choice of travel: cost, time, convenience, and social norm. However, travelers value these factors differently depending on their individual characteristics, such as age, income, work flexibility and environmental engagement, as well as on external factors, such as the weather. Moreover, instead of modeling the transport system explicitly, online web services are used to generate travel options. The model can support transport planners by providing estimations of modal share, as well as economical and environmental consequences. As a first step towards validation of the model, we have conducted a simple case study of three scenarios where we analyze the effects of changes to the public transport fares on commuters’ travel choices in the Malmö-Lund region in Sweden.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/directions/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.labs.skanetrafiken.se/.

  3. 3.

    http://developers.commutegreenerinfo.com/.

  4. 4.

    http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema.

  5. 5.

    http://json-schema.org/.

  6. 6.

    http://www.wunderground.com/.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank K2– The Swedish National Knowledge Centre for Public Transport for partially funding this research, and the National ITS Postgraduate.

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Correspondence to Banafsheh Hajinasab .

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Hajinasab, B., Davidsson, P., Persson, J.A., Holmgren, J. (2016). Towards an Agent-Based Model of Passenger Transportation. In: Gaudou, B., Sichman, J. (eds) Multi-Agent Based Simulation XVI. MABS 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9568. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31447-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31447-1_9

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