TRAFFIC SIMULATION CASE STUDY: CITY OF DETROIT, NEW CENTER AREA NETWORK

AN APPLICATION OF A COMPUTER SIMULATION MODEL TO A COMPLEX NETWORK OF 24 INTERSECTIONS IN THE NEW CENTER AREA OF THE CITY OF DETROIT IS DESCRIBED. THE PRIMARY CASE-STUDY OBJECTIVE WAS TO EVALUATE THE ABILITY OF THE TRANS MODEL DEVELOPED BY PLANNING RESEARCH CORPORATION TO DETERMINE IF IT ACCURATELY REPRESENTS TRAFFIC OPERATIONS UNDER EXISTING CONDITIONS IN THE SELECTED STREET NETWORK. THE CITY OF DETROIT, DEPARTMENT OF STREETS AND TRAFFIC, COLLECTED THE COMPREHENSIVE DATA ON PHYSICAL INVENTORY AND TRAFFIC CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE NETWORK. FIELD STUDIES AND SIMULATION EXERCISES WERE PERFORMED FOR THE 3:30 TO 6:30 PM TIME PERIOD, WHICH WAS DIVIDED INTO THREE ONE-HOUR ANALYSIS PERIODS. FOUR IMPORTANT VARIABLES OF TRAFFIC OPERATION IN THE NETWORK WERE CONSIDERED: TOTAL VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED, TOTAL TRAVEL TIME, MEAN NETWORK CONTENT, AND AVERAGE SPEED. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE RESULTS FOR THE SIMULATION MODEL AND THE FIELD STUDY WERE NOT SIGNIFICANT FOR TWO OF THE THREE ONE-HOUR STUDY PERIODS AND SIGNIFICANT FOR ONE PERIOD- THAT BETWEEN 4:30 AND 5:30 PM. THERE APPEARED, DURING THE PEAK HOUR, A TENDENCY FOR THE MODEL TO PROCESS TRAFFIC MORE EFFICIENTLY THAN INDICATED BY THE FIELD OBSERVATIONS. FOUR DIFFERENT NON-PARAMETRIC STATISTICAL TEST METHODS WERE USED IN ORDER TO FORMALLY TEST A SERIES OF HYPOTHESES CONCERNING COMPARISONS OF DISTRIBUTIONS FORMED BY THE SIMULATED AND FIELD-MEASURED TRAFFIC VARIABLES FOR THE INDIVIDUAL LINKS IN THE STREET NETWORKS. /BPR/

• Corporate Authors:

  Planning Research Corporation

  1100 Glendon Avenue
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90024
• Authors:
  • Wagner, F A
  • Barnes, F C
• Publication Date: 1968-7

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Average spot speed; Field studies; Highway operations; Information processing; Intersections; Mathematical models; Peak hour traffic; Statistical analysis; Traffic; Traffic flow; Traffic simulation; Travel time; Vehicle miles of travel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Model tests
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00227226
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Traffic Systems Reviews & Abstracts
• Report/Paper Numbers: R-1064b
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 27 1970 12:00AM