Modeling Urban Mobility at a Metropolitan Scale: a Comparison of Paris Transport Models

Modeling transportation systems is strategic to evaluate urban development projects by providing traffic estimates and social, economic or environmental impacts. This paper puts forward an analysis grid highlighting Travel Demand Models (TDMs) characteristics and specificities to spell out the modeled mobility aspects and their operational capacities. This grid is then applied on 5 operational models used in the Paris region.

In order to build this analytical framework, the standard model structure based on the supply, the demand, the mobility uses and their impacts is assessed. The proposed grid is articulated around the spatio-temporal frame, the demand, the transportation modes and services supply, and the mobility uses representations. Travel demand representation is treated in-depth by focusing on mobility decisions modeling. A final analytic table comparing Paris region models highlights the different mobility aspects revealed by each and discusses their specificities and their link to the TDMs’ operational uses.