planning
technologies
Using GIS for Transportation Analysis
With its extensive spatial analysis capabilities and rich visual environment, Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) can give transportation planners fast and effective tools for analyzing travel patterns
and travel network characteristics. Provided, of course, that data bases describing those
characteristics can be easily converted to GIS form.
M2probe is a planning technologies application that “hotlinks” the EMME/2 travel demand
forecasting package data base to ArcView™ desktop GIS. Planners can see all of the networks and
trip tables inside the EMME/2™ data base from inside ArcView™, and can instantly convert them to
ArcView shapefiles. M2probe can instantly generate a wide variety of maps of interest to planners,
including color-shaded maps, dot-density maps, desire line diagrams, and line volume maps. At the
click of a mouse button, planners can aggregate data from traffic analysis zones (TAZs) to any subarea or district system of their own choosing. Planners can instantly generate a wide variety of
network statistics, including volume/capacity ratios, level-of-service, vehicle hours of travel, vehicle
miles of travel, and vehicle hours of delay. These network measures can be instantly summarized by
TAZ or sub-area.
M2probe offers transportation planners an unprecedented ability to perform regional and corridor
analysis based on EMME/2 simulations of travel demand.
Travel to the Albuquerque downtown as simulated by EMME/2™ is shown in this graphic. M2probe extracted
the data from the EMME/2™ data bank and generated this map in less than 5 seconds.
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2
planning
technologies
The Application
The application is distributed as an Arcview™
extension and associated DLLs which can be
attached to any Arcview project, instantly
giving Arcview™ the ability to see inside the
EMME/2™ data bank and extract network
and matrix data. M2probe runs on Windows95/NT™ platforms, and is also available for
unix.
M2probe extracts data from the EMME/2™
data bank directly – batch out files are not
needed. This gives the planner a superior
transportation analysis platform:
can extract any portion of full matrix data,
such as trips to the central business district,
“on the fly” by merely clicking on the TAZs
of interest. Zone group ensembles and other
clumsy mechanisms inherent to EMME/2™
are bypassed.
The Implementation
m2probe was implemented in Arcview’s™
scripting language Avenue™.
Also, the
application consists of Visual-BASIC™
programs and Visual C++™ programs, both
from Microsoft™. The application code was
developed by planning technologies, and is
proprietary.
 The
planner can bring transfer
EMME/2™ data to ArcView without
leaving the ArcView environment.
 It’s fast. Extraction of a 6,000 link
network and conversion to an ArcView™
shape file takes approximately 45 seconds
on a 120 mhz Pentium class computer.
 More importantly, the planner can access
data not normally generated in EMME/2
batch files, such as VOLAU and TIMAU
variables.
One of m2probe’s impressive features is its
ability to convert networks in a variety of
ways. Planners can choose, if they desire, to
ignore load links, which often play no role in
travel analysis. At the planner’s choosing,
EMME/2’s™ internal 1-way representation of
roadway links can be collapsed to 2-way
representation “on the fly”, thereby giving
planners an ability to compute total 2-way
roadway volumes and other statistics,
including directional splits. Before m2probe,
there was no way to do this.
Another of m2probe’s impressive features is
its ability to extract trip table and travel time
matrix data from any EMME/2™ data bank
and attach it to a TAZ shape file. Planners
Desire line diagrams can be instantly generated
with m2probe.
Other Features
In addition to its ability to extract network and
matrix data from the EMME/2™ data bank,
m2probe provides the planner with extensive
capabilities for analyzing and mapping travel
forecasting results:
 Generates color-shaded or random dot
density TAZ maps for any variable of
interest.
 Automatically generates desire line
“spider” diagrams for any TAZ variable of
interest.
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2
planning
technologies
 Automatically converts variables, such as
trip origins in TAZs, to density
representations, such as trip origins per
acre, to more properly depict them on
maps.
 Automatically aggregates TAZ level data
to other larger geographies, such as subareas or district systems. Aggregate data
can be mapped in almost any way, using
color-shaded, dot density, or desire-line
techniques.
 Automatically computes volume/capacity
ratios, levels of service, vehicle hours of
travel, and a host of other link-based
variables, at the click of a button.
 Automatically summarizes network data
by TAZ, district, or sub-area, or any other
geographic area of interest.
 Automatically generates line-volume
network maps, which can be color shaded.
 Automatically
precision.
rounds
data
to
any
Availability
m2probe is now in Beta-3 test. M2probe
licenses are available for purchase now.
Contact us.
A line volume map for the Albuquerque network.
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2
planning
technologies
M2probe: Hotlinking ArcView and EMME/2