Dear user,

INRO has evolved along with its users since 1976 at the labs of the University of Montreal. Our 27-member team now serves thousands of users at over 900 organizations on 6 continents. With great pride, we count among our user community the leading planners in the industry, modelling the world's most sophisticated transportation systems.

The variety and quality of the technical presentations at the 20th International Emme Users' Conference last month are a testament to the competence and vibrancy of the Emme user community. We are pleased to add these presentations to INRO's library. We have also scoured our archives to retrieve many papers from the early years of the Emme conference series and made them available online for the first time. All of this content is readily searchable on INRO's new Web site, launched today for your browsing enjoyment.

INRO's software features have evolved while transitioning on all major hardware and software platforms for decades, bringing users' data and models along the way. We are now on the cusp of another leap forward with the release of Emme 3.0 and Dynameq 1.2, providing users with cutting-edge modelling tools and greater productivity.

Over 90 participants from 13 countries attended the 20th International Emme Users' Conference in INRO's home town. See familar faces in the photo diary.

Pascal Volet, a member of the conference organizing committee, contributed to the technical programme as well. His presentation described plans to expand the Ville de Montréal's Dynameq study to cover 350 square kilometres populated by nearly 2 million residents—an unprecedented scale for DTA applications. These expansions apply INRO's novel methodology to preserve the calibrated Dynameq demand as the study area grows.

Jia Hao Wu and Edwin Hull presented the Reno, NV model update and a lightning fast study for an airport link in Vancouver, BC that were completed with the Emme 3 Beta software.

Demand modelling experts Eric Miller, Peter Vovsha, and Keith Long presented Toronto's transit assignment challenges and innovative toll road models in Montreal and Sydney.

Shuguang He presented the transit fare modelling methodology developed for Hong Kong by INRO. Dan Florian and Shane Velan demonstrated the latest features in upcoming releases of Emme 3 and Dynameq. Many users called for a joint Emme-Dynameq conference in Toronto next year.

On behalf of our conference co-hosts at Transports Québec and Ville de Montréal, we thank the presenters and the rest of the participants for a rewarding conference. We are looking forward to seeing more of you in Toronto next year!

Emme 3.0 will be released in February 2007 as a free upgrade to EMME/2.

The response from Emme Beta users has been gratifying. "The productivity tools in Emme 3 enable me to accomplish editing tasks efficiently, so I can focus on modelling improvements and results," remarked Carlos Perez from the City of Coquitlam after participating in the new Emme for EMME/2 Users course.

Access to Emme 3 depends on the status of your Software Support Agreement (SSA). Emme 3 will be distributed on CD-ROM to all users with a valid SSA. Existing EMME/2 users with a valid SSA will be able to download the official version immediately after the release. New EMME/2 licences include a 90-day SSA, and will be able to download Emme 3.0 within this period. If your SSA has lapsed, we encourage you to inquire about updating your SSA in advance, to avoid delays to accessing Emme 3.

A host of new features are included in the upcoming release of Dynameq 1.2, incuding transit modelling, building networks from shapefiles, intersection templates, select link analysis, and interface enhancements.

• Now Dynameq users can assess the impact of transit vehicles and their stops on the traffic stream and the effect of traffic congestion on the transit vehicle trajectory. Can buses and trams keep up with their schedules? How would a reserved bus lane affect routing and travel times? Would the traffic perform better if the bus stop was relocated along the roadway, or is a turnout required to relieve queueing? Dynameq has answers.
• Build networks directly from shapefiles in a flash.
• Spot and fix coding errors quickly with improved network validation.
• Code hundreds of intersections efficiently with templates.
• Identify the origin and destination of traffic at a bottleneck, as well as the routes, with select link analysis.
• Dynameq has many interface enhancements, including embedded tables and an Emme look-and-feel.

INRO has revamped its training courses for the new software releases.

• Emme for EMME/2 Users, a 1-day survey of what's new, was presented by request in Singapore, Montreal, and Vancouver, BC.
• Introduction to Emme, a 3-day comprehensive, task-based approach to learning Emme, was presented in Montreal, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Vancouver, BC.
• Advanced courses have also been updated.

Consult INRO's training schedule and register for a course, or let us know if you would prefer on-site training.

INRO brings leading-edge research and software to the transportation planning field. INRO software products are used by thousands of transport planners and modellers in over 70 countries. INRO continues to innovate in the field it helped define, with a strong tradition of research and new product development for transport planning and simulation. Read more about INRO.