# 101b: Swissmetro MNL, Biogeme Style¶

This example is a mode choice model built using the Swissmetro example dataset. We will use a style for writing the utility functions that is similar to the style used in Biogeme. First we create the DB and Model objects, as usual:

d = larch.DB.Example('SWISSMETRO')
m = larch.Model(d)


We can attach a title to the model. The title does not affect the calculations as all; it is merely used in various output report styles.

m.title = "swissmetro example 01b (simple logit)"


Unlike Biogeme, the usual way of using Larch does not fill the main namespace with all the parameters and data column references as distinct objects. Instead, we can use two master classes to fill those roles.

from larch.roles import P,X  # Parameters, Data


All of our parameter references can be written as instances of the P (roles.ParameterRef) class, and all of our data column references can be written as instances of the X (roles.DataRef) class.

The swissmetro dataset, as with all Biogeme data, is only in co format. Which is great, because it lets us ignore the ca format and just write out the utility functions directly.

m.utility[1] = ( P.ASC_TRAIN
+ P.Time * X.TRAIN_TT
+ P.Cost * X("TRAIN_CO*(GA==0)") )
m.utility[2] = ( P.Time * X.SM_TT
+ P.Cost * X("SM_CO*(GA==0)") )
m.utility[3] = ( P.ASC_CAR
+ P.Time * X.CAR_TT
+ P.Cost * X("CAR_CO") )


Note that when the data field is too complex to be expressed as a single python identifier (variable name), we can write it as a quoted string instead.

We can estimate the models and check the results match up with those given by Biogeme:

>>> m.maximize_loglike()
messages: Optimization terminated successfully ...
>>> m.loglike()
-5331.252...
>>> m['Time'].value
-0.01277...
>>> m['Cost'].value
-0.01083...
>>> m['ASC_TRAIN'].value
-0.701...
>>> m['ASC_CAR'].value
-0.1546...

>>> print(m.report('txt', sigfigs=3))
=========================================================================================...
swissmetro example 01b (simple logit)
=========================================================================================...
Model Parameter Estimates
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Parameter       InitValue       FinalValue      StdError        t-Stat          NullValue
ASC_TRAIN        0.0            -0.701           0.0549         -12.8            0.0
Time             0.0            -0.0128          0.000569       -22.5            0.0
Cost             0.0            -0.0108          0.000518       -20.9            0.0
ASC_CAR          0.0            -0.155           0.0432         -3.58            0.0
=========================================================================================...
Model Estimation Statistics
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Log Likelihood at Convergence           -5331.25
Log Likelihood at Null Parameters       -6964.66
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Rho Squared w.r.t. Null Parameters      0.235
=========================================================================================...


Tip

m = larch.Model.Example('101b')