Calibration of Steady-State Car-Following Models Using Macroscopic Loop Detector Data

The paper develops procedures for calibrating the steady-state component of various car-following models using macroscopic loop detector data. The calibration procedures are developed for a number of commercially available microscopic traffic simulation software, including: CORSIM, AIMSUN2, VISSIM, Paramics, and INTEGRATION. The procedures are then applied to a sample dataset for illustration purposes. The paper then compares the various steady-state car-following formulations and concludes that the Gipps and Van Aerde steady-state car-following models provide the highest level of flexibility in capturing different driver and roadway characteristics. However, the Van Aerde model, unlike the Gipps model, is a single-regime model and thus is easier to calibrate given that it does not require the segmentation of data into two regimes. The paper finally proposes that the car-following parameters within traffic simulation software be link-specific as opposed to the current practice of coding network-wide parameters. The use of link-specific parameters will offer the opportunity to capture unique roadway characteristics and reflect roadway capacity differences across different roadways.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Rakha, Hesham Ahmed
  • Gao, Yu
• Conference:
  • Symposium on the Fundamental Diagram: 75 Years (Greenshields 75 Symposium)
  • Location: Woods Hole Massachusetts, United States
  • Date: 2008-7-8 to 2008-7-10
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 21p
• Monograph Title: Symposium on the Fundamental Diagram: 75 Years (Greenshields 75 Symposium), July 8-10, 2008, Woods Hole, MA. Preprints

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Calibration; Car following; Loop detectors; Macroscopic traffic flow; Network links; Software; Traffic models; Traffic simulation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I71: Traffic Theory;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01109348
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 25 2008 8:11AM