Feasibility of Traffic Simulation for Decision Support in Real-Time Regional Traffic Management
Abstract
State-of-the-art microscopic traffic simulation programs offer detailed modeling capabilities of vehicle interactions based on drivers, pedestrians, and highway elements. Consequently, these tools can help regional traffic management personnel make operational decisions by predicting future traffic conditions that result from incidents. This research sought to determine the effectiveness and timeliness of using a detailed microsimulation suite called Paramics to support personnel in a regional traffic management center in real-time decision making. Two sites in rural, high-crash areas of South Carolina were examined to see whether Paramics could provide decision information as quickly as desired by regional traffic management centers. Only certain combinations of incident durations and simulation accuracy satisfied the decision-time constraints for realtime decision support. Increasing the computational resources or reducing the size of the traffic network can provide decision support for longer incidents at higher accuracies and further allow microscopic traffic simulation to aid regional traffic management personnel in real-time decision making.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
1. NCHRP Research Results Digest 289: Measuring and Communicating the Effects of Traffic Incident Management Improvements. TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2004.
2. Barth M., Scora G., and Younglove T. Estimating Emissions and Fuel Consumption for Different Levels of Freeway Congestion. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1664, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1999, pp. 47–57.
3. Incident Management Practices: A Cross-Cutting Study—Improving Mobility and Saving Lives. Intelligent Transportation Systems, U.S. Department of Transportation, April 2000.
4. Ozbay K., and Kachroo P. Incident Management in Intelligent Transportation Systems. Artech House, Inc., Boston, Mass., 1999.
5. Incident Management. Trucking Research Institute, American Trucking Associations; Cambridge Systematics, Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 1990.
6. Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Linking Solutions to Problems. Final report. Cambridge Systematics, Cambridge, Mass.; Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, 2004.
7. Chowdhury M., and Sadek A. Fundamentals of Intelligent Transportation Systems Planning. Artech House, Inc., Boston, Mass., 2003.
8. Skabardonis A., Chira-Chavala T., and Rydzewski D. The I-880 Field Experiment: Effectiveness of Field Experiment Using Cellular Phones. California PATH Research Report UCB-ITS-PRR-98-1. University of California, Berkeley, 1998.
9. Intelligent Transportation Systems Benefits: 1999 Update. Electronic Document Library No. 8323. FHWA, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1999.
10. Wang K. C., Chowdhury M., Fries R., Atluri M., and Kanhere N. Real-time Traffic Monitoring and Automated Response with Wireless Sensor Networks. Proc., ITS World Congress, San Francisco, 2005.
11. Mollaghasemi M., and Abdel-Aty M. Post Disaster Dynamic Routing of Emergency Vehicles: Development of Emergency Response Model for Orlando International Airport. Florida Department of Transportation, Tallahassee, 2003.
12. Sahraoui A., and Jayakrishnan R. Microscopic-Macroscopic Model Systems Integration: A Simulation Case Study for ATMIS. Simulation, Vol. 81, No. 5, 2005, pp. 353–363.
13. Leeds University. Smartest: Final Report. European Commission, 1997.
14. Zou N., Chang G.-L., and Rahwanji S. I-270 Simulator: Integrated Knowledge-Base and Simulation System for Real-Time Incident Management. Presented at 82nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2003.
15. Chronopoulos A. T., and Johnston C. M. A Real-Time Traffic Simulation System. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 47, No. 1, Feb. 1998.
16. Chronopoulos A. T., and Johnston C. M. A Real-Time Traffic Simulation Using a Communication Latency Hiding Parallelization. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 51, No. 3, May 2002.
17. Mahmassani H., Qin X., and Zhou X. DYNASMART-X Evaluation for Real-Time TMC Application: Irvine Test Bed. U.S. Department of Transportation, 2004.
18. Ozbay K., Mudiganda S., and Bartin B. D. Microscopic Simulation and Calibration of Integrated Freeway and Toll Plaza Model. Presented at 85th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 2006.
19. Church R. L., and Noronha V. S2P Version 3.0d: Users Manual. California Department of Transportation, Sacramento, 2003.
20. Dowling R., Skabardonis A., Halkias J., McHale G., and Zammit G. Guidelines for Calibration of Microsimulation Models: Framework and Applications. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1876, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 1–9.
21. Millar G., Tudge R., and Wilson C. An Introduction of Microsimulation Software in Australia. Proc., 21st ARRB and 11th REAAA Conference, May 18–23, 2003.
22. Paramics Traffic Simulation Model. Quadstone Ltd., Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, 2002. http://www.Paramics-online.com.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published: January 2007
Issue published: January 2007
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 29
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 0
Crossref: 2
- What Level of Tourism Traffic Should be planned for in North Carolina’...
- Modelling major traffic incident impacts and estimation of their assoc...
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
