Chapter 25: National Models

Several countries have found the need for a National Model to make forecasts of traffic and travel demand. National Models have been in use in Europe for nearly 20 years, while the number of non-European countries with an interest in modelling at national level is increasing.

The objectives for which the models have been developed are diverse. For example, the Netherlands National Model was intended to support planning for strategic transport infrastructure, while the Norwegian model was built to analyse the transport component of greenhouse gas emissions. However, both these models and most models developed in other countries have been applied for a wide range of policy analyses. Road and rail infrastructure planning remains central, but traffic demand management, in particular the possibility of road user charging, is an important application.