Iterative urban design and transport simulation using Sketch MATSim

Abstract

New transport technologies have historically influenced how cities are shaped, while urban form is known to influence travel behaviour. But this reciprocal relationship is seldom operationalized in practice due to the disciplinary gap between urban design and transport planning. The two are often linked through a ‘predict and provide’ workflow, which is problematic in the context of emerging technologies such as AVs. This paper argues for a more iterative design and transport simulation workflow, through design experiments. One design experiment is illustrated using Sketch MATSim, to investigate the impact of network design on the performance of shared automated vehicles.