It is now the perfect time for city authorities to use modelling to rethink their public transport strategies, a leading industry podcast has heard.
Martin Hartmann, Senior Product Specialist at Aimsun told the Inside Intertraffic Podcast that modelling is essential to get a grasp of the effects of current strategies and what new developments can be used to find an optimal solution.
The podcast discusses the effects of the Covid-19 crisis on public transport use, with passenger numbers dropping dramatically due a fall in commuting because of home working, city centre venue closures and some people’s fears of catching the virus on board.
Hartmann explained how Aimsun’s dynamic public transport assignment tool in its Aimsun Next 20 software allows city planners to take a holistic view of a city’s network, “[It gives] the option to focus both on short term aspects such as dedicated bus lanes, or traffic signal priority,” he said, “At the same time, you can focus on medium-to-long term aspects of mobility in your city, integrating the solution in travel demand models. This gives the city the opportunity to work together on both fronts, with traffic planning and traffic engineering.”
The tool includes pedestrian and cycling simulation alongside public transport which Hartmann says allows planners to understand how the recent rise in the amount of active travel fits into the overall transport options a person has.
He adds that the planner must always consider the individual, “When talking to the industry and partners and public transit operators I identified a clear trend of a more passenger-centric perspective of those public transit operators,” he says. “So, it is not only of interest of their operational schemes and optimising the performance of their fleet. Have more and more interests of the passenger experience before and during the trip.”
The Inside Intertraffic podcast hosted Highways News co-owner Paul Hutton also hears from British train expert Nick Illsley and Sergio Fernandez, who is the international project collaboration manager at EMT, Madrid’s public transport company.
Listen here: https://www.intertraffic.com/news/articles/inside-intertraffic-podcast-5-faith-public-transport/
