Book Review - Modelling Transport

Modelling Transport Ortuzar, Juan de Dios (John Wiley, 2001)

£60, ISBN 0471861103, 499 pages

Publisher's Description

Presenting a comprehensive review of transport models and their applications, this book makes a valuable source of information to students studying transport planning.

Reviewer

Dr Erel Avineri, Faculty of the Built Environment , University of The West of England.

Summary Sentence

Presenting a comprehensive review of transport models and their applications, this book makes a valuable source of information to students studying transport planning

Audience

Transport models are widely used by transport planners and policy makers in order to represent transport systems, and to investigate the impacts of alternative plans, solutions and parameter values. In their third edition of the book, “Modelling Transport”, Ortuzar and Willumsen provide a wide-range and up-to-date review of the common methodologies in transport planning.

Students in Transport Planning and Transport Engineering programmes will find this book to be a valuable source of information. Modelling Transport provides Undergraduate and Postgraduate students with a comprehensive review of transport models and their applications.

I find this book to be much more than a textbook for students. Any practitioner or researcher who is involved in transport modelling may find it of potential interest. It makes an excellent handbook that may be used by a student after graduation and to accompany him/her for many years after.

Content

This book effectively describes key transport modelling techniques and applications. The contents are arranged in 13 chapters, starting with an introduction and followed by a chapter on mathematical prerequisites (that may be skipped by a reader with a sound mathematical background). This is followed by a chapter about data collection and their representation for use in transport modelling. Next, several chapters are dealing with first-generation aggregate demand models (trip generation, distribution, modal split and assignment), with strong focus on discrete choice modelling. The book ends with a chapter about ‘other important topics’, which include freight demand models, forecasting techniques and valuing travel time and external effects of transport.

Some lecturers may be familiar with the previous editions of this book. With the third edition, some new features have been covered, in order to reflect recent state-of-art research and practice in transport modelling. A wider and more up-to-date discussion of discrete choice models (Chapters 7 and 8) has been included, describing recent models and methodological issues related to the Hierarchical Logit Model, Mixed Logit and the incorporation of latent qualitative factors into travel demand models. A new section (4.3.4) about trip generation and accessibility has been added, following some improved methods for trip generation.

Other topics that have been added to this edition include the stability of trip matrices (section 5.8.8) and departure time choice and assignment (section 11.5), providing some supply/demand equilibrium models. Another topic introduced in this edition (section 13.5) discusses the external effects of transport and provides the reader with methods to value such effects.

The main approach of discrete choice analysis, as discussed in this book, is random utility theory. This represents the main stream with transport modelling. However, different approaches to choice analysis are not presented here (for example approaches based on soft computing methodologies such as Artificial Neural Network and Fuzzy Sets). This may lead the reader to a wrong impression that disaggregate models, random utility models and discrete choice models are similar concepts.

Moreover, it is somehow disappointing that behavioural assumptions of travel behaviour, based on the works of psychologists and sociologists, are only briefly mentioned (in Chapter 7) and mostly outside the scope of this book. Behavioural assumptions of some models are almost always made without reference to existing theories in the behavioural sciences.

Style and Format

The structure of the book lends itself well into the topic, and the language is easy to understand. A subject index is provided.

The book is full with examples demonstrating the models. The clear figures and tables, demonstrating applications of transport modelling add much value. Exercises, given at the end of each chapter, provide the reader with an opportunity to practice the material. The chapters about mathematical prerequisites and data collection are very useful to a reader who suffer from a weaker mathematical and statistical background, or would like to refresh it.

A minor irritant of this book is the absence of solutions to the questions at the end of each chapter; including such may provide the reader not only an opportunity to practice the material, but also a practical way to test their knowledge. Due to the length of this comprehensive book, a glossary and an author index could be also useful.

General Comments

As mentioned earlier, this book is suitable not only as a key source of information for students and teachers, but also as a handy manual to practitioners. The comprehensive book is among the best texts available in the field of Transport Modelling; therefore I find the price of £60 for this comprehensive book to be reasonable.

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