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Whilst some GIS packages, such as Caliper’s TransCAD and the ESRI ArcLogistics Route option, include functionality designed to solve a wide range of network analysis and associated planning and modelling tasks, problems of this type are often addressed using a range of bespoke or specialised transportation and logistics software. Some of these, such as eRouteLogistics and RouteSmart are built on/integrate with GIS packages (ESRI software in these two examples), whilst many others are purpose-built components of logistics systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software or navigation suites. Examples include REACT, from MJC2 (www.mjc2.com), TruckStops from MicroAnalytics (www.bestroutes.com) and Optrak (www.optrak.co.uk).

Most of the latter class of software takes into account the many practical, real world constraints that must be incorporated in operational software. Examples (from REACT) include: vehicle routing taking one-way streets into account; trip routing taking restricted junctions into account; varying speeds by road type and time of day; trip routing of vehicles to avoid toll roads and toll bridges; trip routing vehicles taking account of congestion charges; delivery routing taking account of customer access constraints by time of day; night time/weekend lorry routing controls (e.g. the London 'brown' routes); weight restrictions (e.g. for truck routing); height restrictions (e.g. for truck routing); vehicle routing costs per mile/km; vehicle routing costs per hour; weight related vehicle routing costs; altitude related truck routing costs (e.g. trip routing to reduce hill climbing). A review of packaged logistics software by OR/MS (the magazine of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences in the USA) includes a (non-exhaustive) list of providers for networking/routing software, with routing functionality as shown in Table 7‑4. Of these, ILOG Dispatcher is of wider interest as it is a component of the ILOG general purpose optimisation suite, which includes CPLEX, referred to later in this chapter.

Table 7‑4 Routing functionality in selected logistics software packages

Product

Routing Functions

Node Routing

Arc Routing

Real-time Routing

Daily Routing

Route Planning & Analysis

A.MAZE

Y

 

Y

Y

Y

Clavis Route

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Compass

 

 

Y

Y

Y

Cube Route Platform

Y

 

Y

Y

Y

Direct Route

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

DISC

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

EDGAR Transportation Management

Y

 

Y

Y

Y

eRouteLogistics

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Global Road Data GIS

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

ILOG Dispatcher

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Optrak4

Y

 

Y

Y

Y

Paragon Routing and Scheduling System

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Prophesy ShipperSeries Software

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

REACT

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Roadnet Transportation Suite

 

Y

Y

Y

Y

Roadshow Enterprise

 

 

Y

Y

Y

RouteSmart

Y

Y

 

Y

Y

SHORTREC Software Suite

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

STARS (Smart Truck Assignment & Routing System)

Y

Y

Y

Y

y

Trapeze MapNet

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

TruckStops Routing & Scheduling

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

VersaTrans Routing & Planning

Y

 

Y

Y

Y

Source: OR/MS. Blank entries indicate ‘not available’. Y indicates available

In addition to software that focuses on routing and logistics, there are a very large number of packages that address traffic modelling and simulation. These may deal with small-scale problems, such as the approach to intersections or traffic lights, or larger problems such as urban- and regional-scale modelling. Tools to support such modelling are sometimes grouped by scale into macro-, meso- and micro-scale classifications. At the micro-scale application-specific simulation software tends to be employed, rather than generic Cellular Automata (CA) or Agent-based Models (ABM) ― see, for example, Martin Treiber’s Java applet (accessible via http://www.mtreiber.de/) for a clear view of such microsimulation.

Widely used software packages exist for modelling single- or multi-mode traffic flows at a range of scales. The principal packages include: TSIS-CORSIM and SIMTraffic (extensively used for micro-simulation as well as more generic traffic modelling); Transmodeller (from Caliper, which can import data from CORSIM and SimTraffic); VISUM (produced by PTV, which they describe as a “comprehensive, flexible software system for transportation planning, travel demand modelling and network data management”); and INRO’s offerings: EMME (trip forecasting) and DYNAMEQ (microsimulation, providing so-called dynamic equilibrium modelling).

Figure 7‑1 provides a visualisation snapshot from a lane occupancy and movement simulation using DYNAMEQ. The warm colours show increased occupancy by lane where vehicles are queuing behind unprotected left-turning movements or traffic light signals. Intersection movements are coloured similarly. Animated movement plots provide a more detailed breakdown of results that pinpoint the congestion. Each lane and turning movement can be colour-coded according to occupancy, flow, density, speed or count.

Many of these traffic and transport software packages provide a wide range of facilities, from small to large-scale modelling and forecasting, and providing sophisticated 2D and increasingly, 3D-style visualisations. Many can import from and export data to a number of standard GIS packages, most commonly supporting ESRI and MapInfo vector file formats.

Figure 7‑1 Visualisation of lane/movement simulation (Dynameq)

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