An agent-based model of urban travel behaviour in Dublin, Ireland, built in NetLogo and empirically grounded in 2016 travel survey data. Each agent represents a Dublin resident initialised with real socio-demographic attributes — including age, gender, household size and car ownership, income, driving licence status, and access to local amenities — alongside observed trip characteristics such as distance, travel time, and trip type (work, shopping, leisure).
At each time step, agents choose between four transport modes (car, public transport, cycling, and walking) across short, medium, and long trips. Mode choice is governed by a preference vector that weighs personal need satisfaction against social influence from neighbouring agents reflecting consumat framework. Satisfaction evolves dynamically based on cost (incorporating Irish motor tax bands and per-km operating rates), travel time, and trip-type suitability, with an uncertainty parameter capturing variability in perceived utility over time.
The model tracks aggregate modal shares and total CO2 emission at each tick, enabling exploration of how policy interventions — such as fuel taxation, public transport pricing, or active travel incentives — might shift the city’s travel demand profile over 100 simulated days.