Evaluation of Microsimulation Models for Roadway Segments with Different Functional Classifications in Northern Iran

Abstract

Industrialization, urban development, and population growth in the last decades caused a significant increase in congestion of transportation networks across the world. Increasing congestion of transportation networks and limitations of the traditional methods in analyzing and evaluating the congestion mitigation strategies led many transportation professionals to the use of traffic simulation techniques. Nowadays, traffic simulation is heavily used in a variety of applications, including the design of transportation facilities, traffic flow management, and intelligent transportation systems. The literature review, conducted as a part of this study, shows that many different traffic simulation packages with various features have been developed to date. The present study specifically focuses on a comprehensive comparative analysis of the advanced interactive microscopic simulator for urban and non-urban networks (AIMSUN) and SimTraffic microsimulation models, which have been widely used in the literature and practice. The evaluation of microsimulation models is performed for the four roadway sections with different functional classifications, which are located in the northern part of Iran. The SimTraffic and AIMSUN microsimulation models are compared in terms of the major transportation network performance indicators. The results from the conducted analysis indicate that AIMSUN returned smaller errors for the vehicle flow, travel speed, and total travel distance. On the other hand, SimTraffic provided more accurate values of the travel time. Both microsimulation models were able to effectively identify traffic bottlenecks. Findings from this study will be useful for the researchers and practitioners, who heavily rely on microsimulation models in transportation planning.

Planejamento Estratégico de Transporte nos Distritos de Conhecimento: da mobilidade urbana sustentável às ruas completas

“…Já a microssimulação se baseia no acompanhamento de veículos, mudanças de faixas, semaforização de interseções. Por outro lado, a mesosimulação é uma combinação de características dos modelos de microssimulação e macrossimulação (Rahimi et al, 2021) Esses resultados são extremamente importantes, pois poderão nortear os gestores no processo de tomada de decisão. As principais vantagens na utilização de modelos de simulação é visualizar a área de estudo, e consequentemente identificar os principais gargalos que necessitam de melhorias futuras (Rahimi et al, 2021).…”

“…Por outro lado, a mesosimulação é uma combinação de características dos modelos de microssimulação e macrossimulação (Rahimi et al, 2021) Esses resultados são extremamente importantes, pois poderão nortear os gestores no processo de tomada de decisão. As principais vantagens na utilização de modelos de simulação é visualizar a área de estudo, e consequentemente identificar os principais gargalos que necessitam de melhorias futuras (Rahimi et al, 2021). Além disso, é possível analisar vários cenários e considerar diferentes alternativas de melhorias e vários modos de transportes (motorizados ou não), como é o caso dos projetos de ruas completas.…”

Assessing the Environmental Performances of Urban Roundabouts Using the VSP Methodology and AIMSUN

“…Literature also informs on capabilities of microscopic traffic simulation models to produce emissions and fuel consumption data related to dynamic traffic-flow conditions on the road entity or network [31]. However, there is still not enough evidence to suggest that accurate vehicle speed and acceleration data (or their probability distributions) may be provided due to inadequate car-following equations and challenges with modelling the driver behaviour on multi-lane roadways [32]. Nevertheless, research efforts to improve both capability of microsimulation models to replicate realistic traffic behaviour or vehicle trajectory data, and traffic generation accuracy at the network or single node level, can be especially useful for managing traffic safety and environmental issues on urban roads because microsimulation allows the modelling of engineering solutions for road infrastructures and their traffic conditions, sometimes difficult to observe in the real world or not yet implemented in the field.…”

Spatial‐Temporal Analysis of Crash Severity: Multisource Data Fusion Approach

“…Nearly 1.35 million people are killed and 20 to 50 million people are injured in road tra c accidents each year around the world [2]. Over the past decade, the travel demand has increased dramatically by the population growth and urban infrastructure developments [3]. Global road tra c deaths are expected to rise by more than 35 percent between 2010 and 2020 as a result of continued economic expansion and greater motorization [4].…”