Edmonton Region Travel Model and Land Use Plan Support
HBA Specto Incorporated and its principal staff have served as expert advisors to the City of Edmonton regarding ongoing transportation model development and application work almost continuously from 1994 up to the present. This has included support and advice on planning and coordinating model development and data collection activities, design and coordination of large-scale household travel and household activity diary surveys, model specification and the sequence of estimation, calibration and validation, guidance in implementation and application, managing requests for model use, staff requirements and staff training – the full range of activities required in the application of transportation modelling in support of design and analysis is covered. From 2017 HBA Specto has also been working with Edmonton staff on the application of a PECAS spatial economic model for the Edmonton Region.
A series of household travel models have been designed, developed, implemented and applied, starting with an aggregate model of all trips more than 100 metres over 24 hours with elastic trip generation, destination choice, time-of-day choice, mode split for nine alternative modes, and peak spreading using a nested logit structure implemented within the EMME/2 Software. More recently a fully disaggregate tour-based micro-simulation travel demand model of household travel over 24 has been developed and implemented. In addition, a micro-simulation model of tours by urban commercial vehicles was developed and incorporated into the travel modelling framework. HBA Specto staff have worked with City of Edmonton staff to create efficient operating procedures for this new model system, including application and interpretation where micro-simulation variance must be taken into account in a practical context.
HBA Specto have also applied a PECAS Spatial Economic Model to produce Long Term Reference (business as usual) land use development patterns for the Edmonton Region to 2065, with full integration of the spatial economic and travel models to provide travel accessibilities based on forecast land use development patterns. They are currently working with Edmonton planning staff to evaluate how transportation supply and land use, zoning, phasing release and taxation policies can produce forecast land use development patterns meeting the City planning vision.
