Developing Microscopic Toll Plaza and Toll Road Corridor Model with PARAMICS

Many simulation models are available to study transportation system elements such as freeways and intersections. However, most of these simulation models do not come with a built-in toll plaza model readily available. Many researchers have independently developed toll plaza models, but they can model only an isolated plaza without the corresponding road network. Toll plaza models based on queuing theory do not take into account headway, gap acceptance, or intervehicle interactions to follow a lead car or to perform lane-changing maneuvers. For instance, if a vehicle is traveling in the leftmost lane and the rightmost toll lane has the shortest queue length, the queuing model will assign this vehicle to the rightmost lane, and the vehicle will make unrealistic maneuvers to reach the assigned toll lane instantly. If a microscopic network simulation model could be customized to model a toll plaza, not only would it simulate the vehicular movements realistically, but it could also model a toll road corridor integrated with the plaza, unlike the isolated toll plaza models. PARAMICS has many simulation tools, such as categories, vehicle type and restriction managers, next-lane allocation, and lane-choice rule, which have been customized to develop a corridor model containing the Holland East Plaza and sections of SR-408 in Orlando, Florida. This model was tested for various hypothetical scenarios, and the results obtained from these scenarios met expectations, which further attested to the validity of the model. This network model can simulate multiple toll plazas and can be integrated with other road networks (e.g., freeways and arterials).