The Optimisation of Integrated Urban Transport Strategies: Tests Based on Edinburgh

INTRODUCTION

Even with relatively simple model packages and modern computers, it is not feasible to test all combinations of model input variables to see which combination gives the 'best' outcome. Neither is it usually possible to solve the models analytically for the optimum. Consequently, there is a potential role for a methodology which takes as input the results from a relatively small number of runs of the model package and then models the response surface in the region containing the optimum, in such a way that it can be analytically solved for the optimum. This paper will set out such a methodology together with a Case Study.