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Agent Based Modeling in Transportation
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:35:16
Abstract
This lectures provides a round tour of agent based models for transportation policy analysis. First, it introduces statistical methods to combine heterogeneous data sources in a usable representation of the population. Then, agent based models are described in details, and applied in a case study.
Objective
At the end of the course, the students should: - be aware of the various data sources available for mobility behavior analysis - be able to combine those data sources in a coherent representation of the transportation demand - understand what agent based models are, when they are useful, and when they are not - have working knowledge of the MATSim software, and be able to independently evaluate a transportation problem using it
Content
This lecture provides a complete introduction to agent based models for transportation policy analysis. Two important topics are covered: 1) Combination of heterogeneous data sources to produce a representation of the transport system At the center of agent based models and other transport analyses is the synthetic population, a statistically realistic representation of the population and their transport needs. This part will present the most common types of data sources and statistical methods to generate such a population. 2) Use of Agent-Based methods to evaluate transport policies The second part will introduce the agent based paradigm in details, including tradeoffs compared to state-of-practice methods. An important part of the grade will come from a policy analysis to carry with the MATSim open-source software, which is developed at ETH Zurich and TU Berlin and gets used more and more by practitioners, notably the Swiss rail operator SBB.
Resources
Literature
Agent-based modeling in general Helbing, D (2012) Social Self-Organization, Understanding Complex Systems, Springer, Berlin. Heppenstall, A., A. T. Crooks, L. M. See and M. Batty (2012) Agent-Based Models of Geographical Systems, Springer, Dordrecht. MATSim Horni, A., K. Nagel and K.W. Axhausen (eds.) (2016) The Multi-Agent Transport Simulation MATSim, Ubiquity, London ( http://www.matsim.org/the-book ) Additional relevant readings, mostly scientific articles, will be recommended throughout the course.
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- MSC
- Frequency
- Yearly recurring
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| lecture with exercise | Agent Based Modeling in Transportation |
|
4 h weekly |