A general purpose digital traffic simulator

Abstract

The described vehicle traffic simulator is designed to fa cilitate analysis of traffic flow and to experiment with postulated traffic control systems. It offers users a large amount of flexibility in specifying network, intersection, vehicle, and control parameters. The logical flow of ve hicles, as well as much of the control system, is prepro grammed. Vehicles varying in size may change lanes, turn, change velocity (including reaction and acceleration delays), and merge. Input volumes may be varied, turns may be eliminated, and vehicles may be routed through the network. The user supplies the geometrical character istics and input information unique to his particular net work in data cards for the program. Some applications to real traffic networks (including a validation procedure) and a simple control experiment are discussed. The model, programmed in a special version of GPSS II and in FAP for the IBM 7090/94 systems, can be used in the simulation of single intersec tions, arterial routes, grid networks, and, for some special cases, limited access roadways.