A Summary of the Applications to Date of RELU-TRAN, a Microeconomic Urban Computable General Equilibrium Model

Abstract

RELU-TRAN (Regional Economy Land Use and Transportation) is a spatial computable general equilibrium (CGE) model treating endogenous road congestion, housing and labor markets, and real-estate development consistent with microeconomic theory. The model has been calibrated and used for the Chicago Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Paris Region, and is currently being implemented for the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. In the Chicago application the model has been used: (i) to examine the impact of an increase in the price of gasoline on travel and location patterns; (ii) to study how travel time, gasoline consumption and automobile emissions would evolve over time as the area grows in population and land area and as employment continues to disperse into the suburbs; (iii) to evaluate the effects of cordon tolling; and (iv) of road congestion versus a tax on gasoline. The main findings from these applications of RELU-TRAN are reviewed in this paper. The recent application to the Greater Paris region was aimed to study the effects of projected growth and of planned rail investments on concentrating jobs in growth poles around the City of Paris.