A review of system dynamics models applied in transportation

Abstract

It is 20 years since Abbas and Bell (1994) evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of system dynamics as an approach for modelling in the transportation area. They listed 12 advantages of the approach and in particular suggested it was well suited to strategic issues and that it could provide a useful tool for supporting policy analysis and decision-making in the transport field. This paper sets out a review of over 50 peer-reviewed journal papers since 1994 categorising them by area of application and providing a summary of particular insights raised. The fields of application include the take-up of alternate fuel vehicles, supply chain management affecting transport, highway maintenance, strategic policy, airport infrastructure and airline business cycles and a set of emerging application areas. The paper concludes with recommendations for future application of the system dynamics approach.

Modelling Land Use and Transport Policies to Measure Their Contribution to Urban Challenges: The Case of Madrid

“…The analysis of the challenges faced by the cities in their efforts to achieve a more sustainable development, gives a high priority to integrated transport and land use planning [3][4][5][6][7]. In this context, the land use and transport interaction models are key tools to analyse the impacts that may arise from urban planning decisions [8][9][10].…”

Eliminating Overload Trucking via a Modal Shift to Achieve Intercity Freight Sustainability: A System Dynamics Approach

“…From this point of view, one of further studies is to address the gaming processes of two or multiple stakeholders of a freight system within SD models. SD has the advantage of greater transparency in communicating results with decision-makers, and is capable of integrating gaming tools [29]. Therefore, SD models would be more beneficial to decision-makers of IFSs once they process interactions of stakeholders more dynamically from a gaming perspective.…”

“…It uses a standard causal loop approach to develop a qualitative model of a system, which is then transformed into a quantitative stock-flow model that consists of stocks, flows, converters, and feedback loops. The SD approach is becoming increasingly used in a hierarchical manner, which allows systems and policies to interact across space and time [29]. Thus, it is a useful decision-making and policy evaluation tool due to its ability of interpreting the past behavior of systems and forecasting policies' effects on systems.…”

“…Abbas and Bell [30] first confirmed the applicability of SD for transportation modeling and listed twelve advantages of the approach compared to traditional transport modeling. Shepherd [29] recently proposed a comprehensive review of SD models applied to transportation within the last twenty years. However, the literature applying SD to freight transportation focuses, respectively, on a single issue of sustainability, such as carbon emission [31][32][33], land use [34], pavement condition [7,35], traffic safety [36], and congestion [37,38], with little discussion on the integrated effects of the above-mentioned issues, namely, freight sustainability.…”

Industry strategies for the promotion of E-mobility under alternative policy and economic scenarios

“…Developed by Jay W. Forrester in the 1950s and applied extensively in business management, it is being increasingly applied to other disciplines. System dynamics modelling has long been applied to transport [28] and in particular the uptake of alternative fuel vehicles [29]. Most previous models have focused on specific technologies, market agents or regions, whereas the Powertrain Technology Transition Market Agent Model (PTTMAM) is one of the most comprehensive models of its type.…”