Archetypes are where you set up values for time for your simulation. The archetype will then determine which mode is used for each trip in the simulation by determining which travel method has the lowest generalised cost.
When setting up the archetype you can give it a name and description in order to help you choose the correct one at a later date.
Generalised value of time (per hour) can be set, if this is set to a non-zero value and no additional penalties are set up then the quickest travel method will be chosen regardless of mode or wait time.
Monetary to generalised cost multiplier can be used to determine the relationship between the generalised cost and monetary costs. This can be useful when using both value of time and monetary costs such as ticket costs.
Additional penalties can be set up to take into account different values of time for different modes or costs such as tickets or fuel. Penalties can be applied to any component of a journey, either as a fixed cost, temporal multiple, or based on distance.
- Per trip: this can be considered the cost to have access to the mode, for instance it may represent the amortized cost of a car, or the amortized cost of a transit annual pass. This will be applied one per trip, i.e. if an agent has an outbound and return journey which both use a car, this will only be counted once.
- Per leg: this is a cost applied per journey leg, i.e. if you have an outbound and inbound which activates it this would be applied twice. Ideally this may represent the price of single tickets, or the cost of likely tolls
- Per step: within a leg the same mode may be used many times, for instance there may be many walking steps in a multi-modal transit journey.
- Per hour: this replaces the variable field and lets you set a cost to be applied based on the time spent travelling in that mode
- Per km/mile: this field would let you apply a cost based on distance (useful for modelling things like the cost of fuel/energy)