---
title: Activity-based Demand Generation
---

[activitygen](../activitygen.md) generates demand from a
description of the population in the net. To do so, it uses a simple
activity-based traffic model. It supports the activities work, school,
and free time and the conveyances walking, bike, car, and bus. Cars may
have their start or stop location outside the map.

## Typical Command Line

```
activitygen --net-file <NET> --stat-file <STATISTICS> --output-file <TRIPS> --random
```

<NET\> is a map in form of a SUMO net file, <STATISTICS\> contains the
description of the population (described below), and <TRIPS\> is the
generated SUMO routes file (the demand).

You can give [activitygen](../activitygen.md) a first try with the following example.

## Example

![Activitygen-example-net](../images/Activitygen-example-net.png "activitygen example net")

While activitygen has been developed
mainly to generate traffic demand for larger networks, this example
features the small network shown in the image on the right. Download the
files [{{SUMO}}/tests/activitygen/activitygen-example.net.xml]({{Source}}tests/activitygen/activitygen-example.net.xml) and [{{SUMO}}/tests/activitygen/activitygen-example.stat.xml ]({{Source}}tests/activitygen/activitygen-example.stat.xml ) to follow this example.

To run this example, use the following commands:

```
activitygen --net-file activitygen-example.net.xml \
            --stat-file activitygen-example.stat.xml \
            --output-file activitygen-example.trips.rou.xml \
            --random

duarouter --net-file activitygen-example.net.xml \
          --route-files activitygen-example.trips.rou.xml \
          --output-file activitygen-example.rou.xml \
          --ignore-errors

sumo --net-file activitygen-example.net.xml \
     --route-files activitygen-example.rou.xml
```

The first command generates the net file from the node and edge
description. The second command generates the routes file (the demand)
from a description of the population in the stat file. The generated
routes files does not contain the complete route information though,
instead it contains start edge and end edge (and optionally some vias,
so-called trips) only. This allows you to choose the router you want for
linking departure and destination edges.

When you run [duarouter](../duarouter.md) as shown above, all
vehicles will pick the fastest route under the assumption of being alone
in the network. This may lead to unrealistic jamming and should be
remedied with a [traffic assignment
method](../Demand/Dynamic_User_Assignment.md).

Finally, you can run a traffic simulation with the SUMO main executable.
You may also give the trip file directly to SUMO as well but this will
slow down the simulation considerably because all the routing is now
done ad hoc based on the current network status. The benefit from this
approach is better route choice since vehicles take the network state at
the time of their departure into account during routing (see
[Demand/Automatic_Routing](../Demand/Automatic_Routing.md))

```
sumo --net-file activitygen-example.net.xml \
     --route-files activitygen-example.trips.rou.xml
```

## The Statistics File

### General information

First of all we need general information over the city.

```xml
<city>
    <general
        inhabitants="1000"
        households="500"
        childrenAgeLimit="18"
        retirementAgeLimit="65"
        carRate="0.58"
        unemploymentRate="0.05"
        footDistanceLimit="350"
        incomingTraffic="200"
        outgoingTraffic="50"
    />
</city>
```

The meanings of all these attributes are described in the following
table:

| Attribute Name         | Value Type               | Description                                                                                   |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **inhabitants**        | Integer                  | Total number of inhabitants                                                                   |
| **households**         | Integer                  | Total number of households (must be between 0.5 and 1 times the number of adults of the city) |
| **childrenAgeLimit**   | Integer                  | Age under which people are children. This is the first year of adulthood                      |
| **retirementAgeLimit** | Integer                  | Age under which people can have children home and work                                        |
| **carRate**            | Float\[0;1\]             | Probability for an adult to own a car                                                         |
| **unemploymentRate**   | Float\[0;1\]             | Probability for an adult in age of work to be unemployed                                      |
| **footDistanceLimit**  | Float                    | Maximum distance one would go by foot instead of another transportation mean.                 |
| **incomingTraffic**    | Integer                  | Number of people coming everyday into the city for they work                                  |
| **outgoingTraffic**    | Integer\[0,inhabitants\] | Number of inhabitants working outside the city                                                |

### Parameters

These entries are different from the general information element in what
they describe. They depend much more of the special context or state of
the city (events, behavior of the population...). They can also be
useful for optimization: the mean speed can be observed afterwards; all
values can be changed in order to meet validation criteria on the
traffic.

```xml
<city>
    <general ... />
    <parameters
        carPreference="0.50"
        meanTimePerKmInCity="360"
        freeTimeActivityRate="0.15"
        uniformRandomTraffic="0.20"
        departureVariation="120"
    />
</city>
```

The meanings of all these attributes are described in the following
table:

| Attribute Name       | Value Type       | Description        |
| -------------------- | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| carPreference        | Float\[0;1\]     | Probability that an adult prefers to take his car instead of a public transportation mean (when both available); *default: 0*.                           |
| meanTimePerKmInCity  | Integer(sec)     | Estimation of the time needed to drive one kilometer (bird's eye) on the map; *default: 360s*.                                                           |
| freeTimeActivityRate | Float\[0;1\]     | Probability that a given household, a given day, has a free time activity using a car; *default: 0.15*.                                                  |
| uniformRandomTraffic | Float\[0;0.999\] | Proportion of the random traffic demand in the whole traffic demand; *default: 0*.                                                                       |
| departureVariation   | Float(sec)       | Variance of the normal distribution introduced for slight variations in departure time (human natural variation in relation to schedules); *default: 0*. |

### Population's Age Brackets

In order to distribute the population among households and in the city
coherently, we need a precise age distribution of this population.

```xml
<city>
    <general ... />
    <parameters ... />

    <population>
        <bracket beginAge="0" endAge="4" peopleNbr="1745" />
            ...
        <bracket beginAge="66" endAge="90" peopleNbr="978" />
    </population>

</city>
```

Follows the description of all bracket attributes.

| Attribute Name | Value Type | Description       |
| -------------- | ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **beginAge**   | Integer    | Beginning age of the interval (incl.). If this is not the first bracket, this age is greater or equal to the previous bracket's ending age     |
| **endAge**     | Integer    | End age of the interval (excl.). This age is greater to the current bracket's Beginning age                                                    |
| **peopleNbr**  | Integer    | Number of people in the interval age of the bracket (\[beginAge,endAge)). This is an relative value, it will be normalized with the number of inhabitants of the city |

### Work Hours

We need to specify the opening and closing hours of all city's work
positions.

```xml
<city>
    <general ... />
    <parameters ... />
    <population> <bracket ... /> ... </population>

    <workHours>
        <opening hour="30600" proportion="0.30" />
            ...
        <closing hour="43200" proportion="0.20" />
            ...
    </workHours>

</city>
```

Here are descriptions of all attributes of opening and closing elements:

| Attribute Name | Value Type   | Description           |
| -------------- | ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **hour**       | Integer(sec) | Possible beginning or ending time of work.                                                                                                         |
| **proportion** | Float        | Proportion of work positions having this time as a beginning (resp. end) hour. It's a relative value: the probability of occurrence is computed by normalizing all opening (resp. closing) proportion values by one. |

### Population and Work Position Distribution

Now, we have to specify the density of people and work in each street of
the city. (by street I meant edges which are even more precise)

```xml
<city>
    <general ... />
    <parameters ... />
    <population> <bracket ... /> ... </population>
    <workHours> <opening ... /> ... <closing ... /> ... </workHours>

    <streets>
        <street edge="abc123" population="2.5" workPosition="10.0" />
            ...
    </streets>

</city>
```

Here are the corresponding attribute descriptions:

| Attribute Name   | Value Type | Description                                                                                                        |
| ---------------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **edge**         | String     | Edge's id                                                                                                          |
| **population**   | Float      | Number of people per meter street. Relative value (normalized with the total number of inhabitants)                |
| **workPosition** | Float      | Number of work positions per meter street. Relative value (normalized with the total number of city's work demand) |

### City Gates

In order to generate incoming and outgoing traffic, we need to specify
gates to the city. Every gate will generate the same number of incoming
(resp. outgoing) cars (the total number divided by the number of gates).

```xml
<city>
    <general ... />
    <parameters ... />
    <population> <bracket ... /> ... </population>
    <workHours> <opening ... /> ... <closing ... /> ... </workHours>
    <streets> <street ... /> ... </streets>

    <cityGates>
        <entrance edge="abc123" pos="243.67" incoming="1.5" outgoing="2.2"/>
        <entrance edge="abc234" pos="0.00" incoming="1.0" outgoing="0.5"/>
            ...
    </cityGates>

</city>
```

The corresponding attribute descriptions:

| Attribute Name | Value Type | Description                                                                                                                        |
| -------------- | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **edge**       | String     | Edge's id                                                                                                                          |
| **pos**        | Float (m)  | Exact position in the street (edge), in meters, from the beginning of the given edge (the maximum value is the length of the edge) |
| **incoming**   | Float      | Proportion of the incoming vehicles, coming through this gate (relatively to the incoming values of the other gates)               |
| **outgoing**   | Float      | Proportion of the outgoing vehicles, leaving the city through this gate (relatively to the outgoing values of the other gates)     |

### Schools

Children don't go to work but to school. The particularity of schools is
that they are exactly positioned and receive many pupils every day.

```xml
<city>
    <general ... />
    <parameters ... />
    <population> <bracket ... /> ... </population>
    <workHours> <opening ... /> ... <closing ... /> ... </workHours>
    <streets> <street ... /> ... </streets>
    <cityGates> <entrance ... /> ... </cityGates>

    <schools>
        <school edge="123abc" pos="23.0" beginAge="12" endAge="18" capacity="400" opening="32400" closing="64800" />
        ...
    </schools>

</city>
```

The corresponding attribute descriptions:

| Attribute Name | Value Type    | Description                                                                                                                        |
| -------------- | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **edge**       | String        | Edge's id                                                                                                                          |
| **pos**        | Float (m)     | Exact position in the street (edge), in meters, from the beginning of the given edge (the maximum value is the length of the edge) |
| **beginAge**   | Integer       | Age of the youngest pupils of the school (lower bound, included in the bracket of acceptance)                                      |
| **endAge**     | Integer       | Age of children not accepted in the school any more (higher bound, excluded from the bracket of acceptance)                        |
| **capacity**   | Integer       | Maximum number of pupils accepted                                                                                                  |
| **opening**    | Integer (sec) | Time of class beginning (school time)                                                                                              |
| **closing**    | Integer (sec) | Time of class ending (home time)                                                                                                   |

### Bus Lines

People have a public bus line system to their disposition. This public
transportation system is described by stations, different bus lines
having their corresponding station for both directions and schedules.

```xml
<city>
    <general ... />
    <parameters ... />
    <population> <bracket ... /> ... </population>
    <workHours> <opening ... /> ... <closing ... /> ... </workHours>
    <streets> <street ... /> ... </streets>
    <cityGates> <entrance ... /> ... </cityGates>
    <schools> <school ... /> ... </schools>

    <busStations>
        <busStation id="1" edge="abc123" pos="456" />
        <busStation id="2" edge="123cba" pos="324" />
            ...
    </busStations>

    <busLines>
        <busLine id="601" maxTripDuration="3000">
            <stations>
                <station refId="1" />
                    ...
            </stations>
            <revStations>
                <station refId="2" />
                    ...
            </revStations>
            <frequencies>
                <frequency begin="10000" end="25000" rate="1500" />
                    ...
            </frequencies>
        </busLine>
    </busLines>

</city>
```

The corresponding attribute descriptions of all elements:

| Attribute Name      | Value Type    | Description              |
| ------------------- | ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **id**              | String        | Bus line's id                                                                                                                             |
| **maxTripDuration** | Integer (sec) | Maximum time needed for a bus to do the end-to-end trip.                                                                                  |
| **refId**           | Integer       | Reference to the id of the chosen station (refers to a busStation object's id)                                                            |
| **begin**           | Integer (sec) | Time of the beginning of a new frequency                                                                                                  |
| **end**             | Integer (sec) | End time of the frequency                                                                                                                 |
| **rate**            | Integer (sec) | Time between two buses, this is the inverse of the mathematical frequency. This bus rate is performed between the beginning and end values described above |

### Final Aspect

Here is a complete example of a stat file:

```xml
<city>
    <general inhabitants="1000" households="500" childrenAgeLimit="19" retirementAgeLimit="66" carRate="0.58" unemploymentRate="0.05"
                    footDistanceLimit="250" incomingTraffic="200" outgoingTraffic="50" />
    <parameters carPreference="0.50" meanTimePerKmInCity="6" freeTimeActivityRate="0.15" uniformRandomTraffic="0.20" departureVariation="300" />

    <population>
        <bracket beginAge="0" endAge="30" peopleNbr="30" />
        <bracket beginAge="30" endAge="60" peopleNbr="40" />
        <bracket beginAge="60" endAge="90" peopleNbr="30" />
    </population>

    <workHours>
        <opening hour="30600" proportion="0.30" />
        <opening hour="32400" proportion="0.70" />
        <closing hour="43200" proportion="0.20" />
        <closing hour="63000" proportion="0.20" />
        <closing hour="64800" proportion="0.60" />
    </workHours>

    <streets>
        <street edge="e01t11" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e11t12" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e12t13" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e13t14" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e11t21" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e12t22" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e13t23" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e14t24" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e21t22" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e22t23" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e23t24" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e21t31" population="10" workPosition="100" />
        <street edge="e22t32" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e23t33" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e24t34" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e31t32" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e32t33" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e33t34" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e31t41" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e32t42" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e33t43" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e34t44" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e41t42" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e42t43" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e43t44" population="100" workPosition="10" />
        <street edge="e44t51" population="100" workPosition="10" />
    </streets>

    <cityGates>
        <entrance edge="e01t11" pos="1" incoming="0.5" outgoing="0.5" />
        <entrance edge="e44t51" pos="280" incoming="0.5" outgoing="0.5" />
    </cityGates>

    <schools>
        <school edge="e11t12" pos="20" beginAge="0" endAge="6" capacity="200" opening="32400" closing="64800" />
        <school edge="e33t34" pos="100" beginAge="3" endAge="12" capacity="150" opening="30600" closing="64800" />
        <school edge="e41t42" pos="50" beginAge="10" endAge="20" capacity="300" opening="32400" closing="61200" />
    </schools>

    <busStations>
        <busStation id="1" edge="e11t12" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="2" edge="e12t13" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="3" edge="e13t14" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="4" edge="e14t24" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="5" edge="e24t23" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="6" edge="e23t33" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="7" edge="e33t32" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="8" edge="e32t31" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="9" edge="e31t21" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="10" edge="e21t11" pos="10" />

        <busStation id="101" edge="e12t11" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="102" edge="e13t12" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="103" edge="e14t13" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="104" edge="e24t14" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="105" edge="e23t24" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="106" edge="e33t23" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="107" edge="e32t33" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="108" edge="e31t32" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="109" edge="e21t31" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="110" edge="e11t21" pos="10" />

        <busStation id="11" edge="e12t22" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="12" edge="e22t32" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="13" edge="e32t42" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="14" edge="e42t41" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="15" edge="e41t31" pos="10" />

        <busStation id="111" edge="e22t12" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="112" edge="e32t22" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="113" edge="e42t32" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="114" edge="e41t42" pos="10" />
        <busStation id="115" edge="e31t41" pos="10" />
    </busStations>

    <busLines>
        <busLine id="101" maxTripDuration="10">
            <stations>
                <station refId="1" />
                <station refId="3" />
                <station refId="4" />
                <station refId="5" />
                <station refId="6" />
                <station refId="7" />
                <station refId="8" />
                <station refId="9" />
            </stations>
            <revStations>
                <station refId="109" />
                <station refId="108" />
                <station refId="107" />
                <station refId="106" />
                <station refId="105" />
                <station refId="104" />
                <station refId="103" />
                <station refId="102" />
            </revStations>
            <frequencies>
                <frequency begin="21600" end="36000" rate="300" />
                <frequency begin="36000" end="57600" rate="1800" />
                <frequency begin="57600" end="68400" rate="300" />
                <frequency begin="68400" end="86399" rate="1800" />
            </frequencies>
        </busLine>

        <busLine id="102" maxTripDuration="7">
            <stations>
                <station refId="15" />
                <station refId="9" />
                <station refId="10" />
                <station refId="1" />
                <station refId="11" />
                <station refId="12" />
                <station refId="13" />
                <station refId="14" />
            </stations>
            <revStations>
                <station refId="114" />
                <station refId="113" />
                <station refId="112" />
                <station refId="111" />
                <station refId="101" />
                <station refId="110" />
                <station refId="109" />
                <station refId="115" />
            </revStations>
            <frequencies>
                <frequency begin="28800" end="32400" rate="600" />
                <frequency begin="57600" end="64800" rate="600" />
            </frequencies>
        </busLine>
    </busLines>

</city>
```

## Activities

ActivityGen takes into account two groups of activities, which are
considered as most traffic-relevant: **Work And School** and **Free
Time**. The activities within each group follow the same statistical
rules.

### Work and School Activities

This aggregate of activities contains the following activities:

1.  Going to work for adults (not retired), and
2.  Going to school for children.

That implies trips from home to work and the return trip for the
drivers.

### Free Time Activities

This aggregate of activities contains the following activities:

1.  Going out during the day (for retired or unemployed people)
2.  Going out in the evening (for all people who finished their *work
    activity* not *too late*)
3.  Going out late in the evening or in the night (for not retired
    adults having no children)

This *activity* is supposed to cover all car uses for:

- Going out see friends
- Doing sport
- Visiting family
- Party

Activity locations are randomized for this purpose.

### Traffic which is not covered by Activitygen

- Through traffic from outside the city to outside the city
- Business traffic (delivery service, logistics, ...)
- Tourist traffic
- Special event traffic

To some extend this can be mitigated by adding `uniformRandomTraffic`.

## Transportation Means

The population is distributed according to the statistics into
households located in streets. People are likely to use different means
of transportation in relation to their location, the availability of the
different means and their destination. Three kind of Means are used in
activitygen:

- **Feet or bike**
- **Buses**
- **Cars**


All of them have their own possibilities and availability
characteristics:

### Feet or Bike

Trips by foot are available only for very short distances. But in this
case, the person is very likely to go by foot. The bike isn't really
used (buses and cars are preferred), it is supposed to serve in cases
where none of the three means (Feet, buses and cars) are not available

### Buses

Bus stations are located in the city corresponding to the real bus line
network given in input (statistical data over the city). Someone enough
close to a bus station and whose destination is enough close to another
bus station is eligible for the public transportation means.

### Cars

Householders having one or more cars can drive (not children) or be
accompanied (escorted) by another adult who needs a car too. Children
can only be accompanied (to school for example). Some households have no
car, in this case they have to live enough close to a bus station. In
the case of having a destination far from any bus station, they can go
by foot or ride a bike. But this case doesn't generated any motorized
vehicle traffic.

## Generated Vehicles

- carInX:Y is commuter traffic
- randUniX is random traffic (X is a running index)
- blXbY is bus line X bus number Y
- hXcY is a car number Y from household X
- hXcY:Z is repeated use of the same car (e.g. when simulating
multiple days) with Z as a running index over all cars

## Limitations

SUMO has a [detailed model for individual multi-modal transport
itineraries](../Specification/Persons.md). Since 0.26.0 multi-modal
routing with public and individual transport modes is supported as well.
However, [activitygen](../activitygen.md) does not make use of
these facilities. In [activitygen](../activitygen.md)

- Buses are generated according to the bus schedule. People using
buses do not show up in the simulation.
- According to some distance criteria between locations and bus
stations, fewer care trips are generated since people are assumed to
take the bus. Public transport travel times are not considered.
- Activitigen assumes a fully connected network and may created invalid trips if the input network isn't fully connected. A possible solution is to filter out invalid trips with the command `duarouter -n your.net.xml -r old.rou.xml --ignore-errors --write-trips -o filtered.rou.xml` but this may also reduce a lot of traffic and require compensation elsewhere

## Model Documentation

ActivityGen was developed as a tool for the evaluation of trust
scenarios in VANETs. The work was part of the project [Fidens: Trust
between Cooperative Systems](https://web.archive.org/web/20120313075112/https://www.ldv.ei.tum.de/en/research/fidens/) featuring
trusted probabilistic knowledge processing in vehicular networks. For
further documentation on the internals of the model, refer to the source
code in [{{SUMO}}/src/activitygen]({{Source}}src/activitygen) or ask the [original
authors](../SUMO_at_a_Glance.md#main_contributors).
