The National Transport Model

Transport is complex - a complex system of systems interacting with each other and the people that use it. The following pages describe Project Monty, a transport model that enables greater insight, opportunity for analysis, and enhanced support for decision makers. A transport model that examines the people and their interactions with transport rather than just the traffic flow.

In essence Monty predicts people’s demand for travel given a set of network, mode and prices, and by mimicking real world behaviours and decision making. Through analysis of the model outputs, transport infrastructure and policy planning can be directly tested in a statistically robust manner, forming key evidence for assessments.

Monty achieves this through a combination of activity, and agent-based modelling methodologies, orchestrated through a complex series of statistical models and simulation systems. With this approach, Monty represents one of the first transport modelling systems of its kind globally, providing a unique opportunity for decision-makers to interrogate the transport system both now and in the future in a more granular and integrated way.

More information can be found in our technical development report(external link) and in various presentations(external link) that the team have given.

Our intention is to publish data and outputs from the model to create nationally coherent datasets available for use by others. In time we may also publish code and other material relating to the model.