MetCouncil_ABM_Meeting_Notes_2021_06_11

MetCouncil ABM Meeting with RSG June 11, 2021

Updates from RSG:

• Dennis sent Andrew the model; Andrew got it running
• So far is in TourCast but should run successfully.

Other things we're waiting for:

• Dennis set up repo on MetCouncil's github site
• Admin had to approve public-facing
• Dennis re-sent invite -- Leah/Ben received
• Dennis will ask about license to use (but we have something temporarily)
  • Might change since a committee at MetCouncil is meeting on this
• Leah will add meeting notes and documentation

Survey data:

• Jonathan sent link to HTS data
• Leah will reach out to Dave to send MetCouncil the re-weighted OBS data (weighted to 2018)

Next steps:

• Need ActivitySim migration plan
• Andrew could start setting up ActivitySim with skims/land use etc.
  • Andrew and Ben will meet to get started after current model has run

ActivitySim Migration:

• ActivitySim base case
  • examples include
    • MTC travel model 1 is pretty much out-of-the-box but doesn't have work from home model
    • Estimation example is estimation mode for MTC travel model 1 (read travel survey table instead of synthetic pop)
      • Uses choice from survey so that next model can use those choices
      • Not relevant today
    • Multi-zone is MTC travel model 1 with fake micro-zones and transit stop-to-stop skim structure to make a test case
    • Marin county is travel model 2, three-zone travel model
    • ARC is similar to MTC (with updated expressions/synth pop); plus scheduling model and parking location choice
      • ARC hasn't been vetted to the same degree as MTC model
    • SEMCOG pulled in some ARC functionality, cleaned up expression files, still being worked on
      • Added work from home model, transit pass model
    • PSRC and SANDAG also going on -- two-zone and three-zone respectively
  • Considerations/trade-offs:
    • Travel model 1 is more vetted, but ARC/SEMCOG have more features and revisions
    • We probably want work from home & probably want transit pass (transit pass is feature of existing model)
    • Is this a fork or a copy, so to speak?
    • We can take the SEMCOG model - need to figure out releases and what a good starting point is
      • Most recent updates related to university travel and changes to mode choice
• Approach to transit modeling
  • Walk-transit and drive-transit; want to add rail submode (rail and/or BRT)
  • We could do this incrementally:
    • Start with walk/drive transit and get it running, see how it looks
    • Might be complicated to see if structure allows us to add new modes/nests without a bunch of recoding
      • Easier to add modes to ActivitySim so should be OK
    • Add rail in phase II
  • Look at transit mode utilities in TourCast for the sake of comparing results
    • Constant -5 for TD, -4 for TW .. but you only see pieces of the equations in output rather than the utility
• Computational: TourCast base year 100% sample is 10-11 hours
• Model Population is 3 million people