# GTA: Generative Traffic Agents for Simulating Realistic Mobility Behavior

Source: [GTA: Generative Traffic Agents for Simulating Realistic Mobility Behavior](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/6976f4f4a2b28e761d87c167>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2026-01-29T05:00:05.135Z

Authors: Simon L\\"ammer, Mark Colley, Patrick Ebel

Published: 2026-01-23T14:24:09.000Z

## Abstract

People's transportation choices reflect complex trade-offs shaped by personal preferences, social norms, and technology acceptance. Predicting such behavior at scale is a critical challenge with major implications for urban planning and sustainable transport. Traditional methods use handcrafted assumptions and costly data collection, making them impractical for early-stage evaluations of new technologies or policies. We introduce Generative Traffic Agents (GTA) for simulating large-scale, context-sensitive transportation choices using LLM-powered, persona-based agents. GTA generates artificial populations from census-based sociodemographic data. It simulates activity schedules and mode choices, enabling scalable, human-like simulations without handcrafted rules. We evaluate GTA in Berlin-scale experiments, comparing simulation results against empirical data. While agents replicate patterns, such as modal split by socioeconomic status, they show systematic biases in trip length and mode preference. GTA offers new opportunities for modeling how future innovations, from bike lanes to transit apps, shape mobility decisions.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

- [Mobility Pattern Validation on German Federal States Survey data Regional Comparison](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/mobility-pattern-validation-on-german-federal-states-survey-data-regional-comparison.md>): Mobility Pattern Validation; German Federal States Survey data Regional Comparison; Modality: 4.07.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.16778>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.16778.pdf>)