Simulator of activities, greenhouse emissions, networks, and travel (SimAGENT) in Southern California: Design, implementation, preliminary findings, and integration plans

In this paper we describe the recently developed large scale spatio-temporal simulator of activities and travel for Southern California. The simulator includes population synthesis that recreates the entire resident population in this Mega region, provides locations for residences, workplaces, and schools for each person, estimates car ownership and type, and provides other key personal and household characteristics. Then, a synthetic schedule generator recreates for each resident person in the simulated region a schedule of activities and travel that reflects intra-household activity coordination for a day. These synthetic activity and travel daily schedules are then converted to multiple Origin Destination (OD) matrices at different times in a day. These are in turn combined with other OD matrices (representing truck travel, travel from and to ports and airports, and travel generated outside the region) and assigned to the network. The assignment output is then used in the software EMFAC to produce estimates of fuel consumed and pollutants emitted (including CO₂) by different classes of vehicles. The overall model system also includes provision for finer spatial and temporal resolutions and a staged plan to implement them. Numerical examples from each major modeling group are also provided together with next steps.