In the transportation sector, we are transitioning from asset-based management of transportation networks to outcome-based management. What does this mean? Historically, improving the capacity of transportation networks relied on building infrastructure and managing that infrastructure as a series of assets. Leading transportation agencies are now seeking tangible outcomes from their networks to support the broader objectives of cities and metropolitan regions. These objectives include higher industry productivity, more sustainable and liveable cities, carbon reduction and social equity. The industry is challenged with how this is achieved.

With growing urbanisation, history has demonstrated that we cannot build our way out of our problems, so we must focus on managing the transportation demand and smarter operations. Transport agencies and operators need to know their customers to do this effectively. In the past, this has been inhibited by the lack of data sources, the ability to manage and process what data is available, and the ability to gather and distribute this data in real-time. Without this, it was difficult to understand who the customers were and how they used the network; therefore, we could not develop integrated and efficient networks and transport services.

In addition, the Covid pandemic has changed how we work and travel. Worldwide, agencies are facing a reduction in public spending and a drive to reduce the transport industry’s impact on climate change while improving the customer experience and increasing productivity for the industry.

Having to do more with less drives innovation and agility, Aimsun is no exception. We have proudly supported the transport planning and operations industry for over 25 years, and with this experience, expertise, and client engagement, we have developed a set of solutions to support agencies and operators to match the desired outcomes. Our solutions are designed to meet the growing needs of the transportation sector as it embraces technological advances, post-Covid travel behaviours and decarbonisation.

We offer data-driven solutions developed and delivered by our Professional Services and Advanced Analytics teams. These customisable solutions can respond to today’s challenges and match the budgets, deployment timelines and resources that our clients have available.

The simulation-based solutions for transport planning provide faster, more cost-efficient modelling to meet transport planning outcomes in a truly integrated way. By providing a stakeholder interface to the models and outputs, we have extended the accessibility and collaboration opportunities of our solutions.

Our flagship solution, Aimsun Live, combines advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and simulation. Aimsun Live was first deployed in 2007 and continues to evolve to meet the needs of the rapidly developing transportation industry. Aimsun Live allows agencies and operators to operate the network using customer-centric KPIs and metrics based on the desired outcomes, be they minimised travel delays, public transport priority, active transport, freight or environmental considerations, such as air quality or CO2 emissions.

As Aimsun Live is both simulation-based and data-driven, it can have a far wider set of use cases than data-only solutions. For example, using Aimsun Live in an offline mode provides the capability for operational planning for network maintenance, disruption, major events, and incidents and provides quantitative support to agencies in planning and operations. Being able to predict network performance and simulate ‘what if’ scenarios greatly enhances confidence in dealing with non-recurrent events and network disruptions.

By transitioning our business to align with our stakeholders and industry direction, we will continue to support the needs of the industry today with outcome-based solutions. Solutions that will deliver efficient, sustainable, and quantifiable benefits to transport planners, operations centres, and future transport technology teams well into the future.