The Jerusalem Activity-Based Model: challenges and innovations

A new activity-based model that is currently being developed for the metropolitan region of Jerusalem, Israel, is described. The design of the Jerusalem Activity-Based Model (JABM) incorporates many advanced features previously included in the CT-RAMP (Coordinated Travel V Regional Activity-based Model Platform) system of activity-based models developed for US cities, such as: a fully-disaggregate micro-simulation of individual households and persons; using tours as the basic unit of travel; consistent generation of daily activity-travel patterns and schedules; enhanced temporal resolution (30 min); and explicitly modeled intra-household interactions and joint travel. There are several components of JABM that are innovative compared to the activity-based models developed elsewhere. In particular, the following two innovative components are discussed in detail: a model for prediction of person / household mobility attributes, and a constrained parking equilibrium model with individual parking location choice and simulation of parking search process. Person and household mobility attributes relate to the medium-term choices that are conditional upon long-term choices (residential, workplace, and school location) but should logically precede short-term travel choices related to a particular day, tour, or trip. In most of the previously developed models, mobility attributes included car ownership only. In JABM this component is significantly expanded to include a wider range of interrelated person and household attributes: - For each person: possession of a driver license; disability or limited mobility category; transit pass, ticket discounts, and/or subsidy from the employer or school; employer provided transportation for commuting; personnel provided or subsidized parking; school bus availability; personal car availability model (car only available to one person) by car type; and car/cycle available from work / business. For each household: household car/cycle ownership model (cars available to every household member) by car type; usual car/cycle allocation to drivers in the household; and toll transponder. The combination of these mobility-related attributes in a coherent choice framework allows for capturing trade-offs between different choices. The final purpose of this model is three-fold: to add behavioral realism and explanatory power to the subsequent models (in particular, mode choice) that would benefit from the additional variables; to create policy-sensitive variables that might be used for certain scenarios and policies (for example, peak-spreading through encouraging compressed work weeks); and to make mobility attributes endogenous to the demand model system and sensitive to network level-of-service variables, which enhances the overall integrity of the model system. One of significant advantages of an activity-based microsimulation structure is the ability to explicitly incorporate parking behavior that makes the model sensitive to constraints and policies associated with parking. By virtue of individual microsimulation with an enhanced temporal resolution, the model can portray the dynamics of parking in each traffic zone during the day. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999