A description, application, and evaluation of the quick-response microcomputer system (QRS) are presented. QRS is found to be a well-programmed computer version of the manual techniques presented in NCHRP Report 187. The system is, with few exceptions, easy to understand and operate. Observations about QRS operation include the following: (a) Some data files must be labouriously re-entered every time the model is run; (b) screen prompts and written documentation sometimes fail to give sufficient guidance; (c) the gravity model output is never transformed into an origin-destination matrix, although it is labelled as such; (d) the mode-choice model has several undesirable features, the most troublesome being the lack of an explicit transit penalty, making calibration difficult; (e) the software may be so easy to apply that it can be used without much thought; and (f) the best application of QRS might be for local traffic analysis and not for corridor or regional studies.
Samenvatting