The MATSim Open Berlin Scenario: A multimodal agent-based transport simulation scenario based on synthetic demand modeling and open data

Abstract

With more diverse transport policies being proposed and the advent of novel transport services and technologies, the transport system is becoming more individualized in many aspects. Transport models, the most important tool to assess policies and schemes, need to be sufficiently expressive to address these developments. Agent-based transport models, where travelers with individual properties and the ability to act and decide autonomously are resolved individually, allow to appropriately model and analyze such policies. This paper describes the MATSim Open Berlin Scenario, a transport simulation scenario for the Berlin metropolitan area implemented in the agent-based transport simulation framework MATSim. The scenario is solely based on open data and the demand for transport is created based on a fully synthetic procedure. Contrary to most transport simulation scenarios, no information from a travel diary survey is required as input. As such, the scenario generation procedure described in this study is spatially transferable and facilitates the creation of agent-based transport simulation scenarios for arbitrary regions.