planning
technologies
Using GIS for Transportation Analysis
With its extensive spatial analysis capabilities and rich visual environment, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can give transportation planners fast and effective tools for analyzing travel patterns and travel network characteristics. Provided, of course, that data bases describing those characteristics can be easily converted to GIS form.
M2probe is a planning technologies application that “hotlinks” the EMME/2 travel demand
forecasting package data base to ArcView? desktop GIS. Planners can see all of the networks and
trip tables inside the EMME/2? data base from inside ArcView?, and can instantly convert them to ArcView shapefiles. M2probe can instantly generate a wide variety of maps of interest to planners, including color-shaded maps, dot-density maps, desire line diagrams, and line volume maps. At the click of a mouse button, planners can aggregate data from traffic analysis zones (TAZs) to any sub-area or district system of their own choosing. Planners can instantly generate a wide variety of network statistics, including volume/capacity ratios, level-of-service, vehicle hours of travel, vehicle miles of travel, and vehicle hours of delay. These network measures can be instantly summarized by TAZ or sub-area.
M2probe offers transportation planners an unprecedented ability to perform regional and corridor analysis based on EMME/2 simulations of travel demand.
Travel to the Albuquerque downtown as simulated by EMME/2? is shown in this graphic. M2probe
extracted the data from the EMME/2? data bank and generated this map in less than 5 seconds.
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2
planning
technologies
and attach it to a TAZ shape file. Planners can The Application
extract any portion of full matrix data, such as The application is distributed as an Arcview? trips to the central business district, “on the extension and associated DLLs which can be fly” by merely clicking on the TAZs of interest. attached to any Arcview project, instantly Zone group ensembles and other clumsy giving Arcview? the ability to see inside the mechanisms inherent to EMME/2? are EMME/2? data bank and extract network and bypassed.
matrix data. M2probe runs on Windows-
95/NT? platforms, and is also available for The Implementation
unix.
m2probe was implemented in Arcview’s? M2probe extracts data from the EMME/2? scripting language Avenue?. Also, the data bank directly – batch out files are not application consists of Visual-BASIC?
needed. This gives the planner a superior programs and Visual C++? programs, both transportation analysis platform: from Microsoft?. The application code was
developed by planning technologies, and is
proprietary. ; The planner can bring transfer EMME/2?
data to ArcView without leaving the
ArcView environment.
; It’s fast. Extraction of a 6,000 link
network and conversion to an ArcView?
shape file takes approximately 45 seconds
on a 120 mhz Pentium class computer.
; More importantly, the planner can access
data not normally generated in EMME/2
batch files, such as VOLAU and TIMAU
variables. Desire line diagrams can be instantly generated One of m2probe’s impressive features is its with m2probe.
ability to convert networks in a variety of ways.
Planners can choose, if they desire, to ignore Other Features
load links, which often play no role in travel
analysis. At the planner’s choosing, In addition to its ability to extract network and EMME/2’s? internal 1-way representation of matrix data from the EMME/2? data bank, roadway links can be collapsed to 2-way m2probe provides the planner with extensive representation “on the fly”, thereby giving capabilities for analyzing and mapping travel planners an ability to compute total 2-way forecasting results:
roadway volumes and other statistics, including
directional splits. Before m2probe, there was ; Generates color-shaded or random dot no way to do this. density TAZ maps for any variable of
interest.
Another of m2probe’s impressive features is its
ability to extract trip table and travel time
matrix data from any EMME/2? data bank
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2
planning
technologies
; Automatically generates desire line
“spider” diagrams for any TAZ variable of ; Automatically summarizes network data by interest. TAZ, district, or sub-area, or any other
geographic area of interest.
; Automatically converts variables, such as
trip origins in TAZs, to density ; Automatically generates line-volume representations, such as trip origins per network maps, which can be color shaded. acre, to more properly depict them on maps.
; Automatically rounds data to any precision.
; Automatically aggregates TAZ level data
to other larger geographies, such as sub-Availability
areas or district systems. Aggregate data
can be mapped in almost any way, using m2probe is now in Beta-3 test. M2probe
color-shaded, dot density, or desire-line licenses are available for purchase now. techniques. Contact us.
; Automatically computes volume/capacity
ratios, levels of service, vehicle hours of
travel, and a host of other link-based
variables, at the click of a button.
A line volume map for the Albuquerque network.
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2
planning
technologies
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2