OpenTraffic: an open source platform for traffic simulation

Traffic models are used to support traffic engineers with the optimisation task by predicting the effects of ITS measures before applying them to the real network. Simulation of traffic networks require a whole suite of applications, from data gathering, cleaning and fusion, over origin/destination (OD) estimation and prediction, to the simulation itself, including route choice, driving behaviour and travel behaviour. Thus, simulation is based on several methods and models developed in several disciplines like system control, mathematics, human behaviour, and vehicle dynamics. To improve existing methods or to develop new methods for traffic management, it is essential to be able to test algorithms in a stable environment that allows access to necessary input (e.g. road network description, traffic measurements, incident reports…), and provides tools for assessment and evaluation. This paper introduces OpenTraffic, an open source platform for traffic simulation allowing for tailor made simulation applications that allows researchers to develop new algorithms in such a stable environment.