Week 8 - Transport Planning

Lecturer: Dr Aruna Sivakumar


Aim and Learning Outcomes

The aim of this session is to provide an understanding of the role of transport planning and appraisal, with a specific focus on methods for travel demand modelling, and the use of the travel demand model in evaluation and appraisal of transport policies and projects.

Lecture Video



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At the end of this session you will be able to

  • Understand and describe the role of the transport model within transport planning and policy-making
  • Demonstrate how to formalise the prediction problem in transport modelling, and use the formalisation for evaluation of transport policies
  • Understand how the 4-step travel demand modelling method works, including the underlying theory
  • Apply a 4-step travel demand model system including trip generation, trip distribution, mode split, and traffic assignment models, to forecast travel demand
  • Demonstrate knowledge of transport planning and modelling software (specifically VISUM)

This session is divided into two weeks (week 08 and week 09) and is also complemented by a seminar on how to use VISUM. More information can be found here.


Lecture and Lab Sessions

WeekDateSessionTimeRoomStaff
8Tuesday 29/11Lecture 810:00-12:00SKEM 301Dr Aruna Sivakumar
Tuesday 29/11Computer Lab12:00-13:00SKEM 317Dr Ahmadreza Faghih Imani
9Monday 05/12Lecture 909:00-11:00SKEM 201Dr Aruna Sivakumar
Monday 05/12Tutorial 911:00-12:00SKEM 201GTA team

The order of the lectures is the following:

  1. Introduction to Transport Planning
    • What is a transport model? The role of transport planning
    • Formalisation of the transport model
  2. Introduction to VISUM
  3. Travel Demand Modelling
    • The four stage travel demand model – trip generation and distribution
    • The four stage travel demand model – trip distribution and traffic assignment

Recommended reading:


Lecture materials

  • Seminar 4

    We will be learning to use PTV VISUM to carry out transport modelling to assess different strategies and scenarios for different modes of transport.