Inventory of Urban Health Related Data covering the Greater Toronto Area - Supporting Documentation

About the Transportation Simulation Model (using EMME/2)

EMME/2 is a commercial software system to model the GTA road and transit transportation networks.  It can store, display and edit computer representations of road and transit networks.  Given known origin-destination flows (from the Transportation Tomorrow Survey), it finds the path(s) through the network which trips are most likely to take.  Thus, it yields estimates of travel times, speeds, volumes and congestion levels for each link in the road network.  In particular, total emissions per street/expressway segment by emission type during a particular time period can be estimated from link length, volume, capacity and average speed, if a suitable emissions model is available to be programmed into EMME/2 (via macro).

Additional Information Concerning EMME/2:

I spoke with Susanna Choy, a researcher in the Data Management Group within the Joint Program in Transportation.  From her I received the following information:

• A student would be able to use this model free of cost with approval from the DMG.  Learning to use the model is time-intensive; tutorials are available on-line.
• The model is divided into 2000 zones selected by regional planners.

The model maintained by the university is for the GTA only.  

Extracted with permission from Kim Tsoi (2004) “Report on the Availability of Inter- and Intra-city Traffic Volume Data for Toronto, Windsor and Montreal”