Demand Modelling Glossary

Terminology associated with Demand Modelling in Podaris

Agent The initial starting point for a trip.
Archetype Used to represent the mode preferences for each agent through a series of custom penalties.
Scenarios A collection of trip definitions.
Trip definitions Specify origin and destinations to generate trips between during a time period and bound to a specific archetype.
Simulations A selection of scenarios and route options.
Route options Ways to define how agents can travel about. A simple simulation might contain Car, Walk, Cycle, and Transit route options. The transit route option would use the current transport networks visible in the project, whereas the car, walk, and cycle options would use the existing street network.
Route type The mode of the router used for a route option - car, walk, cycle, or transit. For cycle, walk, and drive route types Podaris uses the existing street network. For transit route types, taking into account mode restrictions, Podaris finds the fastest transit journey across the current transit networks in the project at a given time of day. The result is one which is fully multimodal and inclusive of walk transfers and waiting times based on the available modes.
Trip Represent a set of journeys made by an agent. They can contain multiple legs, for instance, an outbound commute and an inbound return from work commute. Each leg might use a different route type (i.e. I can get the bus in the outbound, but walk home).
Legs Individual journeys that an agent makes using a single “Route type” - Car, Walk, Cycle, or Transit.
Step A journey leg may contain multiple “steps” with different modes, e.g. a leg with route type “car” may have three steps: walk from house to car, drive from car to work, walk from car to office.