New traffic software gives Mid East road planners insight into future demand

The VISEM transport information system will be launched by Beirut-based traffic software specialists, Trafx, during Gulf Traffic 2002, the region's major vertical conference and exhibition (Confex) for the Middle East's traffic and transport industry.

'This is a great tool at the hands of the region's transportation planners, who need reliable software and in depth network and mobility data analysis to help them plan future road and mass transit infrastructure,' said Davyd Farrell, Exhibition Manager, IIR Exhibitions & Conferences, the organiser of Gulf Traffic, which will be held at Dubai's Crowne Plaza Hotel, from 26-29 October 2002.

'Having access to accurate future transport demand within a region or an area is essential for analysis and planning of transport networks, especially in the Gulf, where population patterns do not follow a standard urban model and are, thus, hard to predict,' said Farrell.

VISEM supports the transport planner in travel demand calculation based on a demand model, which distinguishes between several behaviour-homogenous population groups and generates a specific set of activity chains for each.

'The structure of a VISEM project makes it possible to define multiple calculations for a single scenario,' said Hicham Chatila, Executive Director, Trafx. 'A scenario includes input data, which are land use data and impedance matrices. Based on the input data of the scenario and specific calculation parameters used for demand calculation, output data is generated.

'VISEM is a compound of the PTV Vision product family and runs under Windows 95/98 and WinNT.'

Trafx is the exclusive Middle East and North Africa distributor and training services provider of the PTV Vision Suite of transportation software.

'Gulf Traffic is an essential part of our strategy as we want to establish contacts with the region's decision makers, transportation planners and engineers and share with them VISEM's state-of-the-art attributes and extensive applications,' said Chatila.

'We want to market our products across the region and are in the process of opening three branch offices in key markets across the Middle East.'

So far, Gulf Traffic 2002 has also received exhibitor confirmations from as far afield as the USA and New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Some 350 Middle East and international delegates from the transport sector are also expected to attend a multi-speaker conference which will have three distinctive segments dedicated to mass transit, with particular emphasis on Mass Transit, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and Urban Planning.

Gulf Traffic 2002 has embarked on a visitor marketing campaign targeting the GCC, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Iran as well as India and Pakistan. Government departments encompassing traffic police, transport and public works ministries will be the focus of the campaign, which will also include urban planners, network developers, component suppliers and specifiers.

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