Glossary of Terms
Demand: one or more tables of aggregated travel demand, defining how many people want to travel between each origin and destination, the time profile of this demand and a distribution by vehicle-type
Trips: a disaggregated list of trips, defining the vehicle type, origin, destination and departure time of every trip for a particular scenario. Trips must be generated from the Demand before the simulation begins.
Terms: A Term is a multi-purpose window in time. You can have as many terms as you like and they can overlap. Terms can be used to split the day into periods, but they can be used for many other things too. A Term is defined by { Start Time, End Time, Day of Operation }.
Behaviors: A Behavior contains parameters that control decisions made by each driver in the model. These decisions include mode and route choices, lane selection and parking selection. A Behavior defines weights that describe the relative value of time, distance and price. A Behavior also contains parameters controlling temperament and driving style.
Vehicles (Vehicle Types): A Vehicle Type defines the physical aspects of a type of vehicle, such as "Small Car" "Medium Car", "Truck" etc. Each Vehicle Type must also be assigned a Behavior, describing how the driver behaves. If specific behavior is required for a type of vehicle, for example a lane restriction, then it will be necessary to define a behavior for that type of vehicle.
Restrictions: A Restriction is used to limit the use of a walkway or a lane. Restrictions are based on mobs (groups of behaviors). A Restriction can be set up to operate all the time, or only during certain times (during a Term). As a restriction is defined by mob, the same restriction can be applied to both a walkway and a lane on the road. If you had two types of users - Staff and Visitors - You could use a "Staff Only" restriction to apply both to lanes on the road, for a parking area, and to walkways that accessed certain doors of a building.
Control: timing and sequencing information for devices such as traffic signals and pedestrian crossings.
Phases: a phase is a set of signal groups that run together. A signal group may apply to one or more vehicle movements, or to one or mode pedestrian crossings.
Plans: a signal plan defines a set of phases, the order in which they are applied, the green time for each phase (the “splits”) and the offset of the first phase in the ordered list. The offset is measured against a global synchronization time, normally the start time of the simulation term.
Network: a representation of the paths and roads used by the people in the model and the geographical areas defining their origins and destinations.
Results: A simulation generates results in tables, similar to database tables.