Behavioural Analytics & Scenario Insights System (BASIS)

The Behavioural Analytics & Scenario Insights System (BASIS) is a research project developing an integrated modelling and forecasting platform to support transport planning and operational decision-making.

By drawing on existing transport and customer datasets, BASIS is intended to help agencies better understand how people respond to network change, disruption, policy interventions and shifting travel conditions. The platform will support scenario testing, behavioural analysis and decision support for both day-to-day operations and longer-term planning.

BASIS is being developed to improve how transport practitioners evaluate demand management strategies and infrastructure responses using historical and near real-time data. The aim is to generate practical, evidence-based insights that can support more informed decisions across complex transport networks.

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Participants

• Transport for NSW
• University of NSW
• University of Technology Sydney

Project background

Transport networks are becoming more complex as cities grow, travel patterns change, and major infrastructure and service changes reshape how people move.

While traditional planning tools are valuable, they may not always be the most suitable approach for quickly testing behavioural responses, operational scenarios or short-term network changes needed to support live decision-making. There is a growing need for tools that can bring together demand, behaviour and operations in a more flexible and usable way.

BASIS is being developed to address that need. It is intended to provide a modular platform that supports scenario evaluation and forecasting by combining transport data, behavioural insights and operational analysis. This will allow users to test potential interventions, compare likely outcomes and better understand how different parts of the network may respond under changing conditions.

The platform is expected to support use cases such as disruption planning, policy testing, demand management, and strategic scenario assessment. Over time, it may also help improve how agencies identify opportunities to reduce congestion, improve network performance and influence more sustainable travel behaviour.

The main objectives of the project are to:

• Develop a scenario evaluation and forecasting platform that integrates behavioural modelling with transport system performance;
• Support testing of disruption, policy and travel demand management scenarios using available transport data;
• Generate clear, decision-ready insights to inform planning, operations and customer-focused responses;
• Improve understanding of how travellers may respond to changing network conditions and interventions; and
• Explore how behavioural analytics can complement existing transport data and modelling tools.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!