bca4abm¶
bca4abm is an open platform for benefit-cost analysis for comparing scenarios generated by travel demand models - activity-based or trip-based. It is a general framework for calculating benefits based on a variety of input data types:
zones
O-D pairs
links
persons
trips
bca4abm is implemented in the ActivitySim framework and therefore exposes its calculations in CSV files that contain pandas and numpy expressions that operate on the input data tables and matrices. This design avoids having to modify Python code when making changes to the benefit calculations. Users are therefore strongly encouraged to refer to the ActivitySim documentation for more information about how bca4abm works and operates.
Benefits¶
Example activity-based model benefits that have been calculated with the benefits calculator are:
travel time and cost reductions by person and equity group
travel options (logsums accessibility) improvements by person trip and equity group
vehicle ownership cost reductions by household and equity group
physical activity improvements by person and equity group
aggregate trip model (truck, visitor, airport) time and cost reductions by market
highway safety improvements by link
vehicle operating cost reductions by link
travel time reliability improvements by link
Example trip-based model benefits that have been calculated with the benefits calculator are:
travel time and cost reductions by O-D pair and equity group
travel time reliability improvements by O-D pair and equity group
physical activity improvements by O-D pair
vehicle ownership cost reductions by zone and equity group
travel options (logsums accessibility) improvements by zone and equity group
highway safety improvements by link
emissions reductions by link
surface water runoff reductions by link
highway noise reductions by link
vehicle operating cost reductions by link
Refer to the Resources page for more information on the ABM and trip-based model example projects.
The tool is especially useful for auditing results from travel models. The benefits calculator provides a tremendous amount of information that is converted into easily understandable units such as minutes and dollars. This helps to illuminate model system components, relationships, and their sensitivities.