Road traffic simulation employing a hardware approach philosophy and design considerations

This is the first article in a series that begins by discussing the necessity of simulation studies in queueing situations, particularly those applied to road traffic. This article describes the philosophy behind the adoption of the hardware simulation techniques used by the Road Traffic Group in the Digital Techniques Research Laboratory of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to construct a special machine for the studying of road-traffic problems. The series will continue with a discussion of the design of electronic f, apparatus for generating pseudo-random pulses to be ~; used as inputs to queues in many of the simulation studies. Subsequent articles will contain design details and the reasons for using both standard and specialpurpose digital circuits to model queues, streets, trafficsignal controllers, mixers, and traffic diffusion. A description of the traffic. simulator operating in conjunction with a process-control computer follows, and the role of this technique is evaluated. The series will conclude with