Run Tranplan

After defining the network and socio-economic characteristics for the network, the network is ready to be run through Tranplan to determine the loaded traffic volumes and travel speeds. The programs to perform this step of the process include a series of MapBasic and Fortran programs which will export the network information to text format and write out a Tranplan control file that contains all the necessary elements to perform a model run (Build the network, identifies skim trees, trip distribution, matrix operations, and assigns the traffic).

Starting with the network in MapInfo



the initial MapBasic program that needs to be run is titled TRANPLAN.MBX. Running this program will produce a window titled "MODELING". Included in the menu bar are items to perform Tranplan runs, create visualization and calibration plots, display the turning movements at intersections, and a shortest path visualization tool.



     Selecting the MODEL RUN menu will start the algorithm for performing model runs.



This first item is to identify the names of the node and link tables. The program will display a window where the user needs to type in the name of the link table and then the name of the node table.  An example of entering the node table is shown.  Note that the extension need not be entered in the window.  



The program will export the data contained in these tables and place them in a format to be used later.  The program will write the information into the files named NODES.TXT and LINKS.TXT, therefore, it is important the user not use these filenames because they will be overwritten.  The program will also prompt the user as to whether the turns table is open or not. The user is required to click the mouse on the appropriate button. If open the program will close the table.

     The program will display a message informing the user that the next step is to run a Fortran program. After the user clicks the OK button, the program opens a DOS window where the user needs to run a FORTRAN program to create a Tranplan input file to build the highway network. The program to be run is titled NETWORK.EXE and can be run be typing NETWORK at the prompt. This program will ask the user some questions related to the network:
          1. enter the number of internal zones
          2. enter the total number of zones (internal and external)


Performing these steps will create the Tranplan control file that will be run the entire model.

     After running the program, the user types exit at the DOS prompt to return to MapInfo. The user needs to select the OK button and a Tranplan window will open. This window is where the user will run the Tranplan control file.

     After running Tranplan, the user selects exit from the Tranplan screen and will be returned to MapInfo. Selecting OK will open a Tranplan Utilities menu which is used to run the NETCARD and TURNS utilities. The Tranplan module, NETCARD, will convert the binary file into a text file for further use. The NETCARD options to specify include:

          Enter whether speed should be output rather than time - enter Y
          Enter the speed factor - enter 1
          Do you want the capacity 2 field in the capacity 1 field - enter N
          Do you wish to average the BPR iterations (if prompted) - enter the appropriate information for your specific network
          Enter one-way format option - enter N
          Enter whether you wish header information - enter Y or N depending on use preference.
         
          If prompted for the file to contain the node information (for nodes not connected to links) - enter n.dat or equivalent filename.

The Tranplan utility TURNS will create a file containing the turning movements for the nodes specified in the save turns item in the loading module. The options required are the counts should be associated with the through node, or selecting option B.

          enter the input from Tranplan - equivalent to the output from the Load Highway Network module
          enter the output filename - TURNS.TP
          enter the node to use - B

     Once these two utilities are run, exit netcard and return to MapInfo where the user will be prompted to run two more Fortran programs. The two programs are titled LOADED.EXE and TURNS-F.EXE. These programs can be run by typing loaded or turns-f in the appropriate directory at the DOS prompt. The inputs to the programs are:
          LOADED.EXE
          1. enter the name of the output file from Tranplan's Netcard utility
          2. enter the number of characters in the link table
          3. enter the name of the link table

          TURNS-F.EXE
          1. enter the name of the output file from Tranplan's Turns Utility
After running the programs, type "exit" and return to MapInfo.

     Once back in MapInfo, the loaded network information and the turning movement data (if the turns module was run and the turning movements were saved) will be incorporated into the existing network. The new speeds and volumes will be inserted into the link table, and the program will calculate items such as the total loaded volume, traffic difference, percent difference in traffic counts, travel times, and volume to capacity ratios.



The program also opens the turns table containing all the turning movement counts for all the nodes in the network that the Tranplan model requested to have the nodes saved for. This table will be used to run the turning movement program. If no turns were saved, this part of the program will be skipped.

After running the network through Tranplan, the loaded volumes for the existing network can be displayed on the streets.



At this point, the user should either feel comfortable that the model is accurately representing traffic flows in the areas by validating the model volumes to the ground counts, or modify the model speeds and capacities to obtain a better traffic assignment. For the example network, the following figure shows the relationship between the assigned volumes and traffic counts.



For this network, we are comfortable in proceeding to develop the bypass scenario.

The user should either go back to the Bypass page or to the Site Map to continue.