London, 18^th July 2024

• Aimsun is building a transport model covering the area within the M60 ring road for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM)
• The model is a strategic planning and operational management tool that TfGM can use to support Greater Manchester’s vision for a more integrated, accessible and affordable public transport and active travel system.
• Aimsun’s data services will enable semi-automatic model updates, which will greatly increase efficiency while maintaining accuracy going forward.

Aimsun is building a large-scale, multi-tier transport model for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). The model is a strategic planning and operational management tool that TfGM can use to support Greater Manchester’s vision for a more integrated, accessible and affordable public transport and active travel system.

Aimsun is building a transport model covering the 100-square-mile area within the M60 ring road for Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), one of the UK’s most prominent transport authorities.

Work on the large-scale, multi-tier model was entrusted to the Aimsun team, who have delivered the initial build inside a very tight timeframe. Final versions of the model will be delivered to TfGM later this year. The model is a strategic planning and operational management tool that TfGM can use to assess a range of schemes being developed in support of delivering the Bee Network – Greater Manchester’s vision for a more integrated, accessible and affordable public transport and active travel system.

“We’ve tasked Aimsun with developing a large and complex model to ambitious project milestones. Given Aimsun’s experience in building similar projects elsewhere, and their status as developers of the software, we were confident they would deliver on this challenging project,” said Sam Corns, Highways Strategy Manager at TfGM.

The key features of the new Aimsun model, described in greater detail below, are that it is multi-scale, supports transport appraisal, will be linked to continuous data sources, and will be built to a standard that can support real-time traffic management in the future.   

Integrated, multi-scale modeling

The Aimsun model replaces the previous microscopic models of Manchester that were built in separate software packages. Instead, it offers a new, fully integrated environment that includes macroscopic, mesoscopic, and microscopic modelling levels in a single platform.

The strategic macroscopic level will be used for demand estimation, and nested inside, will be two dynamic layers: mesoscopic and microscopic. The mesoscopic scale uses simplified vehicle dynamics for greater efficiency and is perfect for fast, full model assignments; the detailed microscopic model covers only Manchester city centre, where greater granularity is needed to capture interactions between individual vehicles. 

Links to continuous data for efficient model updates

As a new feature for TfGM, the Aimsun model will enable a link to continuous data sources, including SCOOT traffic flows (from the UTC system), Bus AVL data and Automatic Traffic Counters.  

Aimsun data processing will add immense value because TfGM will gain historical data insights, not only from normal conditions but also from less typical time periods such as Christmas or Saturdays. “Crucially, Aimsun’s data services will enable semi-automatic model updates, which will greatly increase our efficiency while maintaining accuracy going forward,” said Sam Corns. “Ultimately, this will support us in delivering for the travelling public in Greater Manchester.”

“We’re building a model with a forward-looking architecture,” says James Daniels, Managing Director of Aimsun UK. “We’re wrapping it in this infrastructure that is updateable, so it can be continually rebased. This architecture forms the perfect starting point for real-time traffic management in the future – it will make it easier for Greater Manchester to transition to a decision support system like Aimsun Live.”

Model quality

The model is being developed using best practice and validated against Department for Transport (DfT) Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG), in particular, TAG Unit M3.1 Highway Assignment Modelling. As such, this model can provide evidence for submissions in support of HM Treasury-compliant business cases. One example of this is the assessment of the general traffic and bus impacts of the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements (CRSTS) City Centre Radials programme.

Going forward

Use of the model and future updates will be completed within TfGM’s Highways Forecasting and Analytical Services (HFAS) team, using their extensive experience of traffic modelling and Aimsun Next software. 

You’ll find this press information on our website: https://www.aimsun.com/latest/aimsun-to-build-transport-model-of-greater-manchester/

Follow Aimsun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aimsun/

Press contact person: nadia.feddo@aimsun.com

Global Head of Marketing, Aimsun.

Project contact person: gavin.bailey@aimsun.com

Head of Business Development, UK, Aimsun.

About Aimsun

Aimsun is an international leader in digital mobility solutions for transportation authorities, highway agencies, public transit operators and consultancies. Aimsun’s simulation and predictive data analytics help customers to understand transportation network performance, to predict its future evolution, and to support decision making.