ActivitySim Application and Analysis Guide General Wishlist

[JoeJimFlood]

This discussion is for expressing general desires for the ActivitySim Application and Analysis Guide such as the overall format or what to include in all of the guides. Suggestions discussed in the April 7 consortium meeting included the use of AI and guidance on quality assurance. There was also a discussion on where exactly the guide should exist, so I created a poll.

Please submit any comments before the April 21 consortium meeting.

[mmilkovits]

I've been thinking more of how the application guide can be useful for senior level modelers, i.e. folks who wouldn't necessarily have their hands on the model but need to understand what to expect and how to guide the frontline modelers in using it appropriately.

This could be for agencies / consultants who are newer to ABMs or those who have used ABMs, but used them in basically the same way as a trip-based model and want to know how to responsibly use ActivitySim.

I see this as a way to both maintain the state-of-the-practice, and to highlight the needs/requirements/benefits of improvements to ActivitySim (e.g. EET). State of the practice will be continually evolving and is best sourced across the practice, so what this guide could provide is a framework for the consortium to populate and refine.

[guyrousseau]

The ActivitySim User Guide should be developed to ensure that the MPO regional transportation planning process can rely on forecasting tools that will be adequate for new socioeconomic environments and emerging planning challenges. It should also be equally suitable for conventional roadway projects, transit projects, and various policy studies such as roadway congestion pricing and HOV/HOT/Express toll lanes analysis. Furthermore, the purpose of the ActivitySim User Guide should be to describe the modeling system setup, how to setup and run the model, the model inputs and the model outputs, including but not limited to, hardware and software prerequisites.