Intelligence in traffic simulation model: Modeling congested network

Traffic simulation tools are becoming more popular as complexity and intelligence are growing in transportation systems. The need for more accurate and intelligent traffic modeling is increasing rapidly as transportation systems are having more congestion problems. Although traffic simulation models have been continuously updated to represent various traffic conditions more realistically, most simulation models still have limitations in overcapacity congested traffic conditions. In traditional traffic simulation models, when there is no available space due to traffic congestion, additional traffic demand may never be allowed to enter the network. The objective of this paper is to investigate one possible method to address the issue of unserved vehicles in overcapacity congested traffic conditions using the VISSIM trip chain. The VISSIM trip chain is used for this analysis as it has the advantage of holding a vehicle without eliminating it when traffic congestion prevents its entrance onto a network. This will allow the vehicle to enter when an acceptable gap becomes available on the entry link. To demonstrate the difference between the simulation using standard traffic input and the trip chain method, a sample congested traffic network is built and congested traffic scenarios are created. Also, simulations with different minimum space headway parameters in the priority rules are analyzed to model congested traffic conditions more realistically. This will provide the insight about the sensitivity of the model to this parameter. Based on the analysis conducted it is concluded that, with appropriate calibrations, the trip chain feature in VISSIM has the potentials to be useful in modeling overcapacity congested traffic conditions more realistically.