Editorial

Aegerten, April 1993 Release 6 of the EMME/2 software has been out in the field now for a few months. Many users are currently in the process of trying out all the new features and enhancements it offers and are integrating these into their applications. From the feedback we get from them, we see that the new extra attributes are already heavily used and, in many cases, have allowed implementations of easy and elegant solutions to problems that previously were almost impossible to tackle. While Release 6 is being assimilated by the users, we are already busy working on new developments for the next release.

In this issue of EMME/2 NEWS, you'll find an article on an incremental logit demand model which uses the base year data as pivot point, as well as a contribution explaining how to generate normally distributed random numbers with EMME/2. In addition to the usual columns, the new ``Macro Tech-Tips'' column is introduced in this issue, containing hints on efficient and effective macro writing.

I hope to see many of you at the European User Conference in Köln, or at one of the local user meetings coming up this spring!

Heinz Spiess, Editor

Montreal, April 1993 Recent governmental regulations and pressures from special interest groups, regarding the impact of automobile traffic on air quality and the environment, have imposed new challenges for urban transportation planners in the U.S.A. There is talk of ``radical changes in the practice of travel demand forecasting'' and an emphasis on an integrated multimodal approach. As many EMME/2 users in Europe have known for some time now, EMME/2 is particularly well suited to accommodate most if not all of the changes suggested to the modeling practice without rewriting a single line of code. Most of the measures that are suggested for ``congestion containment'' may be analyzed with the functionality provided by the variable demand network equilibrium model, the multiclass equilibrium assignment and the additional options of the auto assignment, supported by the network calculator and the EMME/2 macro language. As we have said it before, the ``glass box'' approach and the flexibility of EMME/2 make it an ideal analysis tool for today's needs. We fully anticipate that such analyses will become more widely spread than they are now in the U.S.A. and elsewhere.

Michael Florian
President, INRO Consultants Inc.