<Minnerva>
Minnerva partnered RPS Group Ltd in developing a multi-modal transport model for the Cork region on behalf of Cork City Council and Cork County Council

This replaced an existing model with one that introduced a range of modelling approaches not previously applied in Ireland, especially relating to variable demand modelling. Growth in the Cork region was placing strain on the transport system and other infrastructure for which the Cork Area Strategic Plan (CASP) had recently been agreed to provide the framework for future planning in the region, which formed part of the stimulus for the commissioning of the new model

The two clients for the model shared similar interests, but while the County Council was generally concerned with the broader, often longer-term, strategic issues, the City Council was interested in detailed, often shorter-term, matters including traffic management and bus priority measures

Providing a model that covered this range of interests is always challenging. The main demographic and employment inputs were provided via a spreadsheet system that fed into a version of the UK DfT’s CTRIPEND system, using local data, that provided trip end information used in the rest of the modelling that was implemented using OmniTRANS modelling software

The highway and public transport networks were modelled in considerable detail, but constraints on data availability limited the minimum size of zones that could be used for reliable demand forecasting. However, the facilities of OmniTRANS and the model set-up made it straightforward to allow dynamic traffic assignment for detailed modelling of specific areas of interest, and or to refine the zoning system if this was found to be desirable for detailed modelling

The full variable demand modelling system could be considered more complex than necessary for some smaller scale traffic studies, so provision was incorporated for facilitating more traditional forms of network modelling when the trip matrix is considered to be fixed

Contact: Miles Logie