10. Apr 2023 1

New actors in MATSim –T: Agent based retailers

F. CiariIVT – ETH Zürich

MATSim Seminar - Castasegna

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Motivations

• Modelling as agents actors which are not persons

• Making explicit the role of retailers in MATSim

• Modeling retailers reactions to road pricing in the Zürich

area

• Modeling an extensive car sharing system for Zürich

General

Specific

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Reaction of retailers to road pricing

Hypothesis: Introduction of road pricing policy in the Zürich region

• Integration of a land use simulator in MATSim

• Location choice behaviour of retailers

• Strategies of retailers facing the introduction of road pricing

• Effects on the transportation demand side

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Car sharing

Hypothesis : Introduction of a large scale car sharing operator in the Zürich region

• Evaluating the demand for the large-scale Car Sharing

operator with MATSim

• Studying its technical feasibility

• Studying its effects (social costs)

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Retailers in MATSim

Conceptual level

• Location (Movement)• Employer (Primary activity)• Facility (Secondary activity location)

Structure

• Attributes• Knowledge• Objective(s)

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Retailers attributes

• Location (base year) • Amount of needed daily/weekly shoppers/ expenditures• Amount of floor space (capacity)• Property portfolio• Rented or owned floor space• Rent • Price Level• Jobs per shop• Income per worker• Advertising level

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Retailers objective

Maximization of:

• Profit• Revenue• Dimension (floor space)• Customers• …

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Strategies

• (Re)-Location• Opening of new outlets (or closure of existing ones)• Re-sizing of existing outlets• Refurbishment• Rebranding• Acquire competitors

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Techniques for the location choice

• Experience• Checklists• Multiple regression• Cluster and factor analysis• Spatial integration (gravity)• Expert system

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Retailers knowledge

Land market• Available properties on the market• Rents/prices for shops and residential housing

Own branch market• Competitors position • Competitors dimension • Competitors prices

Customers• Primary activity locations of persons (Home and work

locations)

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Agents as Consumers

• Agents in MATSim are not yet explicitly modeled as consumers

Already in MATSim

• Home location• Work/education location• Gender• Mobility tool ownership

Not yet in MATSim (or to be re-defined/improved)

• Expenditure• Leisure time• Personal and or household income• Activity space

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Actors of the land market

• Individuals• Retailers

• Public administrations (Policy Makers)• Developers• Firms / Companies

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Uses

• Prognosis of future retailers location

• Modification on the transportation demand side (i.e. caused by a change on the transport supply side in turn) and evaluation of retailers reaction

• Introduction of new retailers and evaluation of the transportation demand side reaction

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Static approach

Initial Demand

Location process of retailers

Person Re-planning (Optimization)

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Dynamic approach

Initial Demand

Location process of retailers

Person Re-planning (Optimization)

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Issues

• Available data• Scoring function for retailers • Introducing the land market• Different time scales for decisions of retailers and

consumers• Meaningful location process also according to Saturday

customers flow (now in MATSim only Mo-Fr is simulated)• Introduction of monetary costs for activities and taking into

account prices for them• …

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A possible simple approach

Retailer model:

• Set of shops (may be empty) = X,Y coordinates of existent shops• Capacity = Number of customers which may be served in one day• Budget = Available budget for opening and relocation of shops

Retailer strategy:

Re-locate or open new shops in order to maximize the number of customers under budget constraint

Solution:• New set of shops• Actual cost of opening/re-location operations• Actual # of customers

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !

Questions?

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Static Approach

Network Data Population

Initial Demand

Execution

Replanning

Scoring

DemandFacilities

Analysis

Retailers Locator

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Dynamic Approach

Network Data Population

Initial Demand

Execution

Replanning

Scoring

DemandFacilities

Analysis

Retailers Locator

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A possible simple approach

• Each shop is an agent

Shop [X, Y, Ca, R, Cs]

Strategy = Find a location X,Y such as (R – C ) is maximized

• Each retailer is an agent

Retailer [X1,…,Xn,Y1,…,Yn, Ca, R, Cs, N]

Strategy = Find a set of locations Xk,Yk such as (R-C) is maximized

Where:

R = # Customers * Average expenditure

Cs = Rent per day + Labor cost per day