DEVELOPMENT OF TRAFFIC SIMULATION LABORATORY FOR DESIGN PLANNING AND TRAFFIC OPERATIONS (PHASE II)
A key element in improving traffic operations and performing effective real-time traffic management is using simulation to assess the effectiveness of various alternatives prior to implementation. The research conducted here is Phase II of a three phase project with the ultimate goal of creating and running traffic simulation experiments in real-time. In the first phase, a set of well-known freeway simulators was evaluated. Major difficulties were a lack of real data, and the time consuming effort required to prepare data for each simulator. Phase I found that developing an integrated traffic analysis environment, where data processing, simulation and output analysis can be automated as efficiently as possible, was of critical importance in improving traffic management and operations. In the second phase, the development of an Automated Simulation Tool (AST) was of critical importance. Phase II was partitoned into four major tasks: development of a Geometry Data Container (GDC), creation of a partial Twin Cities Freeway Geometry, development of an AST, and specification of a real-time AST framework. Each part of this phase was essentially prescribed by the Phase I results. The GDC would be the design and implementation of a common geometry database that could be shared among different simulators. Initially, only a microsimulator would be implemented, but later other simulators could be added. Creation of a partial Twin Cities Freeway Geometry would be the base level common geometry that is entered. All the detail needed for a microsimulation is entered including freeway sections, detector locations and types, ramp meters, and other fine details. This work needs to be done only once with this design. Any subnetwork of the original entered network can be selected with a mouse and saved as a new network. Development of the AST will allow traffic engineers to select a freeway and a time period for simulation and then essentially run a simulation without any direct manipulation of data. Traffic engineers will not need to know anything about the data formats of either geometry or flow data in order to run a simulation.
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Corporate Authors:
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Department of Civil Engineering, 500 Pillsbury Drive, SE
Minneapolis, MN United States 55455 -
Authors:
- Telega, P
- Michalopoulos, P
- Publication Date: 2000-6
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: Appendices; Figures;
- Pagination: 171 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Improvements; Real time data processing; Traffic control; Traffic simulation
- Uncontrolled Terms: Automated simulation tool
- Geographic Terms: Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minnesota)
- Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00795270
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: CTS 00-02,, Final Report
- Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI
- Created Date: Jul 11 2000 12:00AM