README.Rmd

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# UA Engine

Routing and aggregation engine for ['Urban Analyst'](https://www.urbananalyst.city/).

## Why?

Urban Analyst Engine aims to be the fastest and most scalable open source
multi-modal routing engine. Other notable options include:

1. ["valhalla", for single-mode routing](https://github.com/valhalla/valhalla)
2. ["r5" for multi-modal routing](https://github.com/conveyal/r5)

In comparison, the `uaengine`:

- Is considerably faster than either of these (see the "benchmarks" vignette);
- Permits far larger queries (`valhalla`, for example, is restricted to maximal
  queries of 2,000 pairwise comparisons, `uaengine` easily extends to
  millions of comparisons);
- Allows true multi-modal travel times to be calculated, with specified, and
  potentially different, initial and final modes of transport.
- Automatically returns ratios of multi-modal to private automobile travel
  times.
- Includes estimates of travel times with private automobile that are
  empirically calibrated to extensive data, and are generally more accurate
  than equivalent times from `valhalla` or `r5`.
- Unlike all other routing engines, UA includes locality-specific estimates of
  additional times required to park automobiles at starts and ends of journeys.

## How?

Usage of this engine is not yet documented. Feel free to open an issue if
you're interested in learning how to use this engine.