Assessment of spatial transferability of an activity-based model, TASHA
Spatial transferability has been recognized as a useful validation test for travel demand models. To date, however, transferability of activity-based models has not been frequently assessed. This paper assesses the spatial transferability of an activity-based model, TASHA (Travel Activity Scheduler for Household Agents), which has been developed for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada. TASHA has been transferred to the context of the Island of Montreal, Canada using the 2003 Origin–Destination (O–D) travel survey and the 2001 Canadian Census. It generates daily schedules of activities (individual and joint) for each individual in this region. The modelled activity attributes (frequency, start time, duration and distance) from TASHA and observed attributes from the 2003 O–D travel survey are compared for five different activities (i.e. work, school, shopping, other, and return to home). At the aggregate level, TASHA provides quite reasonable outcomes (in some cases – better results than for the Toronto Area) for all four attributes for work, school and return to home activities with few exceptions (for instance, school start time). The model outcomes are also promising for shopping frequency and start times; however, TASHA provides larger differences for average shopping durations and distances. Only the forecasts for all four attributes for the ‘other’ activity type differ greatly with the observed attributes for the Montreal Island. These large differences most likely indicate the differences in behaviour between the Montreal Island and the Toronto Area. In general, we conclude that re-estimation of model parameters and the use of local activity attribute distributions (frequency, start time and duration) is a desirable step in the transfer of the TASHA model from one context to another.
Macro-, meso-, and micro-level validation of an activity-based travel demand model
ABSTRACT Validation is an essential part of the model development process for practical applications in the real-world context. This paper focuses on how and at which level the validation of activity-based travel demand models must be performed. It then examines the spatial transferability, as a validation test, of an activity-based model, TASHA (Travel Activity Scheduler for Household Agents). This paper applies the TASHA model to the Island of Montreal, Canada, using the 2003 Origin–Destination (O–D) travel survey and the 2001 Canadian Census, and validates the transfer by comparing modelled and observed activity attributes at three different levels of aggregation. Validation results at different levels (especially at macro-, and meso-level) seem quite promising. TASHA can successfully reproduce activity behaviours of another context, at least for fixed activities (work, school) with a few exceptions.
Responsive Ethics and the War Against Terrorism: A Levinasian Perspective
Realist and liberal understandings of ethics as the dominant approaches to ethics in international relations are unable to respond efficiently to the call of the other in the age of war against terrorism as they revolve around the needs and the interests of the self. Such self-centred understandings of ethics cannot respond to the other ethically and respect the other in its otherness. Therefore, in this work I attempt to develop responsive ethics by drawing on Levinasian ethics which can create the possibilities of concrete non-violent responses to the other in the age of war against terrorism.