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PTV Visum

The world’s leading transport planning software

PTV Visum is the world's leading transport planning software. It is the standard for macroscopic simulations and macroscopic modelling of transport networks and transport demand, public transport planning, and for the development of transport strategies and solutions. With PTV Visum, you create transportation models that provide insights for long-term strategic planning and short-term operational use. 

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The 2024 Mobility Tech Update is available now!

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Customers who are satisfied with PTV Visum

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Trust PTV Visum – the transport planning software

PTV Visum reliable future planning
Reliable transportation planning of future investments

Cost-benefit analysis for new mobility infrastructure and public transport

PTV Visum balanced mobility concepts
Develop balanced sustainable mobility concepts

Evaluate transport concepts for sustainability, accessibility, & more

PTV Visum multimodal transport
Simulate multimodal transport

All existing + future transportation modes and their interactions

PTV Visum traffic data
Integrate all mobility data

Bring together mobility data and provide powerful analysis tools

PTV Visum high performance
High performance for more efficiency

Fastest + most advanced algorithms for travel demand modeling

PTV Visum solution for every challenge
The right tools for every task

Variety of calculation methods to produce the exact KPIs

PTV Visum insights down
Insights down to the very detail

Extended visualization and analysis capabilities in 2D and 3D maps

PTV Visum intuitive use
Intuitive use

An intuitive graphical user interface and extensive documentation

PTV Visum seamless integration
Seamless integration with PTV Vissim

Easily combine macro and micro modeling

Key functions of PTV Visum

Efficiently set up and manage many development scenarios

Make the right decisions as your transport system evolves. With its integrated scenario management, PTV Visum enables effective preparation and evaluation of many scenarios. You can create and manage modifications to the model: infrastructure developments, new transit lines, population forecasts, and zoning policies. Scenarios can then be composed and evaluated in batch computations. Define and extract key KPIs according to your planning goals and compare them to make the best plan for your community. Compare individual scenario variants, down to the smallest detail. When networks or inputs change, the scenario manager highlights results which may no longer be valid. 

High-performance algorithms for quick and accurate results

PTV Visum transport planning software supports the evolution of mobility systems through data-based assessments of scenarios. These models are complex, due to the diversity of human mobility and its interactions with its surroundings. To effectively evaluate many possible future variants, short model run times are critical. The PTV Visum algorithms are therefore continuously optimized with new methods and techniques, such as contraction hierarchies and parallel processing. Especially in the key area of traffic assignment, amazing accelerations have been achieved in recent years. Improvements to other tools such as loading, filtering, and displaying of results are continuously added as well. 

Efficiently create and maintain transportation models

Developing and maintaining transportation models means using data from many providers and sources. PTV Visum offers a variety of interfaces to import such data and to integrate it into the model. In addition to generic formats for tabular and GIS data, there are specialized interfaces for public transport data, demand matrices, and signal controls. Build and maintain multimodal networks with powerful tools for data integration, matching of public transport lines to road network, merging of redundant or neighboring objects, timetable simplification, and more. 

Transparency and extensibility

Good documentation of transportation models enables their long-term use by multiple diverse users. PTV Visum supports this need with a “self-describing” data model, graphical user interface, scripting API, and procedure/parameter files. All attributes are described by tooltips in the user interface. Calculation methods are displayed in a graphical user interface – so programming and scripting knowledge are only needed in advanced applications. Most visualizations can be adapted to perfectly suit the needs of the actual model users.  

Multimodal transport modeling

PTV Visum is the right solution for efficient multimodal transport modeling. With this PTV transport planning software, you can plan transportation in a city or a region, get information on the mode split, analyze all travel processes in detail, and find the best solutions for present and future mobility challenges. Use PTV Visum software to develop a master transportation system plan for the entire region, even when there is little data available. 

Public transport planning software: Optimize operations and user experience

PTV Visum is the ideal public transport planning software: it provides key figures on user experience (travel times, frequency, walking times, fares), as well as operational aspects and costs (operating times, performance kilometers, empty runs, vehicle requirements, depot use). You can evaluate network and timetable variants and operating concepts. By combining strategic transport demand models with operational assessment tools, your decisions will always be well-informed. 

Public transport planning software: Plan fleets, infrastructure, and electrification

For the best long-term fleet procurement and maintenance, PTV Visum provides tools for travel demand forecasting, fleet planning, and operational concepts. Fleets with different types of vehicles can be allocated according to flexible criteria, including demand. PTV Visum considers depot capacities, turning times, empty runs, and other factors. By comparing different scenarios, you derive the optimal options for fleet procurement and operating costs. The transport planning software also considers electric vehicles - their unique energy consumption, charging processes, and charging infrastructure. Different operating concepts, such as overnight and opportunity charging, can be compared.

Plan and integrate new modes of mobility

PTV Visum helps transport planners and engineers to design, analyze, and integrate new modes of mobility. The transport planning software models cars, bikes, walking, and ride-sharing schemes, as well as their integration with all the variants of public transport. With PTV Visum, you can also study the effects of autonomous and connected vehicles. 

Assess air and noise pollution from transport

PTV Visum includes procedures for calculations of emissions and noise from transport, so you can assess these impacts without additional software. When used early in the planning process, it can help to detect unwanted effects of transport measures, such as increases in total emissions due to detours. 

Analyze toll systems, low emissions zones, and access restrictions

Use PTV Visum to model toll systems and access restrictions, such as low emissions zones (LEZs) or bans on trips for through-traffic. For area-wide restrictions like LEZs, the software considers resulting detours in routing and KPIs. Toll systems are studied as distance-based, area-wide, or tariffs between network access points. A special assignment procedure provides realistic representation of user preferences between toll costs and travel times. As a result, evaluate how tolls affect users’ route lengths, travel times and costs, and the expected revenues for operators. 

Beautiful visualization and flexible graphics

With PTV Visum, your transport model has more impact through meaningful maps, diagrams, and 3D presentations. Even non-experts will easily understand the results and conclusions. Of course, you can also print any outputs. PTV Visum offers a variety of interactive graphic tools for analyzing and editing data – all flexible and adoptable to your needs. Special tools for public transport include graphical timetable, schematic line network plan, and graphical block editor. The windows can be arranged on several screens, and you can switch between configurations. A synchronization mechanism ensures that different representations are focused on the same selected objects. 

Publish and share your analysis

PTV Visum provides you with the latest tools for outreach to partners and stakeholders. Use the PTV Visum Publisher tool to create interactive dashboards of your Visum models and scenario analyses. Plus, easily upload scenarios and dashboards to the PTV cloud, and then share them with your team or with the public.  

Detailed traffic flow simulation of large-scale transport networks

To get a better level of detail when planning roads, PTV Visum offers enhanced operational modeling capabilities. The powerful mesoscopic assignment method Simulation-Based Assignment (SBA) enables fast and accurate traffic flow simulation of large networks. As a result, the network effects of local traffic management strategies are assessed easily and accurately. You can also extract data from large-scale models and analyze it in local models within the microscopic traffic simulation software PTV Vissim, or in real time applications using PTV Optima

Activity-Based Demand Modeling (ABM)

PTV Visum supports Activity-Based Demand Models (ABM), which model mobility decisions of individuals instead of groups of people. As a result, daily activity and travel schedules are created with information on start times, time spans, locations, and mode. Easily integrate and manage your ABM demand data; store surveyed or synthesized households, persons, tours, and trips; and connect them to the database. Trips can be assigned to static assignment paths for analysis. Use PTV Visum to also import, manage, and analyze third-party highway and transit simulation model results. 

Free trial of PTV Visum

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Upgrade your public transport service

Planning public transport network and services

Buses, trams, subways, taxis, trains - PTV Visum is the only mainstream transport planning software to include detailed public transport maps. From investing in new lines and stations to changes in timetable and fleet capacity, the market leading PTV Visum software helps you make cost-effective decisions.

PTV Visum for public transport

Validate Germany

Traffic model and traffic data provider

The Validate Germany model contains the passenger car and truck loads for the entire German main road network, making it one of the largest traffic models in the world. From the Validate model, any desired sub-model can be cut out as a basis for local traffic studies.

Traffic data from projects like Validate Germany can be used for location analysis and many other tasks.

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Avoid traffic jams when building

Smart planning of construction sites with traffic estimates

Support transportation planning futures already during construction. By simulating the effects of construction scenarios and the associated interventions in traffic controls, you can stabilize traffic flow and reduce congestion and emissions.

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Downloads, Learning & Support

Explore a comprehensive collection of resources to help you get the most out of PTV Visum. Whether you're just getting started or looking to deepen your expertise, you'll find everything you need here. Access beginner guides, self-learning materials, professional training courses, release notes and support through our helpdesk and FAQs. 

Self-Learning Resources

Enhance your skills at your own pace with our collection of tutorials, videos, and webinars designed for independent learning.

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Professional Training Courses

Take your expertise to the next level by enrolling in our structured training programs for both beginners and experienced users, led by PTV experts.

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Download Set-Up & Service Packs

Download the latest set-up files and service packs to get started and to ensure your software is always running smoothly and efficiently.

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Release Highlights

Discover what's new in the latest software releases, including feature enhancements and important updates, or browse release highlights from previous years.

Discover the latest Umovity Tech Update Release Highlights Archive

Helpdesk & FAQ

Get all your questions answered. Browse our FAQ or reach out to our support team for product assistance in our Helpdesk portal.

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What customers say about PTV Visum

We are impressed with the speed improvements in Visum 2022 and happy we can run a converged assignment in such a short time.

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Transport for London

The City of Hamburg has been given a great tool with which they can analyze interactions between traffic jams and construction measures.

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Hamburg State Agency for Roads, Bridges and Waters (LSBG)

PTV Visum gave us a clear and high-performance data structure for an activity-based demand model.

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Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)

The application is a potential game-changer for public charge point installation, quickly delivering the hard evidence that is needed.

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SP Energy Networks

The PTV solution is a "well-known, established and fit-for-purpose software for the model and database".

The European Commission
Trimode, the next European Transport Model

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