Milton Keynes Council has commissioned transport planning consultants Halcrow to develop the model, which will take into account people who travel by car, bus and rail as well as those who walk and cycle.
It will be used to look at future travel demands and patterns, helping the council to plan and design the appropriate transport infrastructure to meet the needs of the growing city.
Over the next few months, bus and rail users will be surveyed and pedestrian and cycle activity monitored. A sample of households will be selected to detail their travel patterns to help understand travel demands.
The project will cost around £450,000 and work is expected to be completed in early 2010.
Cllr Douglas McCall (pictured), Cabinet member with responsibility for Transport, said “An exciting element of the project will be taking transport planning to a new level in Central Milton Keynes. The model will be brought to life through visualisations of how transport will operate in our growing city centre.”
John Lewis, chief executive of Milton Keynes Partnership, added: “MKP has invested in this model as it will let us understand how the growth of the city will impact on travel and enable us to plan the right transport infrastructure to keep Milton Keynes flowing freely.”
The previous transport model was instrumental in securing investment for the A5 junctions (£8 million), M1 junction 14 (£18 million), MK Busways (£5.6 million) and public transport improvements in Central Milton Keynes (£5 million).
The previous transport model was also used to identify a range of smaller transport schemes which have supported the growth of Milton Keynes.
