Company soups up traffic simulator
PricewaterhouseCoopers is developing an interface to help bring a complex traffic simulation software package to market
Professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is developing an interface
to help bring a complex traffic simulation software package to market.
The tool is designed to help planners develop roadway and mass transit
systems that ease traffic congestion and air pollution.
The Transportation Analysis and Simulation System (Transims), which
was originally developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the U.S.
Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, simulates
daily travel patterns and emissions of vehicles. The software uses commuting
information derived from census and survey data for specific geographic
areas.
Current transportation modeling software simulates travel from point
to point but does not account for multiple destinations within the same
trip, according to Bob McLaughlin, Price-waterhouseCoopers' business development
manager for the project.
"It starts to map things the way people actually do them," he said.
"The predictions are much more realistic about the transportation system's
performance in handling those trips."
Los Alamos National Laboratory enlisted PricewaterhouseCoopers after
Transims proved difficult to use during trials in the Dallas-Fort Worth
and Portland, Ore., metropolitan areas.
Under the contract, worth $6 million to $7 million, the company will
have the right to market the system to state and metropolitan transportation
planning organizations and transportation consultants. Secondary customers
could include emergency evacuation and environmental planning organizations,
McLaughlin said.
Portland will be the first test site for the commercialized software.
Transims could be useful to cities and states trying to hold on to federal
transportation dollars that are tied to air quality standards.
"The emissions are not the same when you start out driving as opposed
to if you are driving for an hour on the highway," McLaughlin said. "[Transims]
can much more precisely estimate air quality."
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