A traffic simulation tool for assessing smart city policies (CitScale)

Over the last century, cities have developed as a function of increased usage of automobiles as the standard transport mode. The number of cars increased along with the population as highways and parking spots became essential in city planning. Now, there is more focus on how the existing infrastructure could be used as efficiently as possible rather than increasing capacity by merely building new roads. An important part of traffic planning is a sustainable transport system, which thereby reduces congestion and emissions by using the available capacity in a more efficient way. Traffic simulation models are tools for assessing new mobility solutions and analysing changes in the infrastructure, such as rearranging intersections and building new roads. Transportation is undergoing a profound and significant transformation as it seeks to fulfil the promise of connected mobility for people and goods while limiting its carbon footprint. Physical changes to the road network mean large investments that must be comprehensively considered before acting. Modelling different scenarios of infrastructural changes allows making forecasts without any physical changes. Autonomous vehicles are potentially changing the economics of ownership as well as the use of the transportation networks, which will likely accelerate trends towards greater use of app-based ride hailing and/or sharing by private transportation network companies. American and European cities are seeing a rise in several potential business models with varying degrees of ride sharing and public vs. private involvement in delivering mobility services (MaaS). Implications for transit agencies and mobility service providers must be evaluated, and this can be done by traffic simulation models that provide a model-based framework for evaluating the mobility impact of new services.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A visualization tool based on traffic simulation for the analysis and evaluation of smart city policies, innovative vehicles and mobility concepts

© 20xx IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The CitScale tool is a software platform for visualizing, analyzing and comparing the impacts of smart city policies based on innovative mobility concepts in urban areas. It places emphasis on new automotive vehicles aimed at reducing traffic or environmental impacts. This paper introduces this traffic simulation-based tool, and two case studies developed for different scenarios in Barcelona City are briefly presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the tool when it is combined with microscopic traffic simulation software. The first case presents an extensive evaluation of new innovative vehicles (electric vehicles, bikes and three-wheeled scooters) and mobility concepts (trip-sharing). In the second one, data provided by connected cars is analyzed in order to compare different developed navigation strategies and how they affect the city. Finally, some of the obtained results from both cases are concisely presented in order to show the potential of the proposed tool.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Barcelona Virtual Mobility Lab: the multimodal transport simulation testbed for emerging mobility concepts evaluation

New sustainable mobility concepts and smart resilient ideas are arising every day. However, there is not an easy way to bring these ideas into reality, or to test how good they are as mobility solutions. Virtual Mobility Lab offers the opportunity to evaluate the impact of new mobility concepts before taking them to the real world. In this work, a multimodal macroscopic traffic simulation model of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area is developed, including both public and private transport network. This paper explains the remarkable features developed for this model, such as the network hierarchy and the multimodal public network interchangers, allowing demand to exchange between public transportation modes along their origin-destination paths.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Sistema de apoio à decisão para implementação de transportes por cabo usando simulação

A presente dissertação foi realizada na empresa TELEF – Transportes por Cabo e Concessões, S.A., onde se procurou desenvolver um modelo de apoio à decisão relativo à implementação de um sistema de transporte por cabo usando a simulação discreta. Para tal utilizou-se o software de simulação ARENA, considerando vários cenários hipotéticos. O modelo foi validado com dados recolhidos do Teleférico de Gaia e do Teleférico do Funchal. A ferramenta de apoio à decisão resultante permite o estudo do sistema de transporte com vista à identificação da solução mais eficaz e eficiente, com base no ajuste de parâmetros numa interface gráfica desenvolvida para o efeito e na animação do modelo. No âmbito do estudo desenvolvido foram realizadas simulações com o objetivo de analisar o impacto de: (i) variações no número de passageiros a transportar; (ii) variações de capacidade ao nível do número de veículos a incluir no sistema de transporte por cabo; e de (iii) limites ao número de passageiros a embarcar como forma de gerir as filas de espera nas estações intermédias do teleférico. Foi ainda considerado um exemplo prático de transporte por cabo com estação intermédia, com vista à identificação de cenários para melhorar a eficiência e eficácia de um transporte de passageiros neste âmbito. A ferramenta de apoio à decisão desenvolvida reveste-se de uma forte relevância prática, permitindo avaliar o impacto de diferentes parâmetros do sistema de transporte por cabo, contribuindo desta forma para a fundamentação da decisão sobre: (i) a configuração a utilizar em sistemas novos; e (ii) a necessidade de alterar sistemas existentes.The present dissertation was carried out at TELEF - Transportes por Cabo e Concessões, S.A., where were tried to develop a decision support model for the implementation of a cable car transportation using the discrete simulation. For that the ARENA simulation software was used, considering several hypothetical scenarios. The model validation was performed with data collected from Gaia Cable Car and Funchal Cable Car. The resulting decision support tool allows the study of the transport system to identify the most effective and efficient solution, based on parameter setting in a graphical interface developed for the purpose and the animation of the model. In the scope of this study, simulations were performed to analyse the impact of: (i) variations in the number of passengers to be transported; (ii) capacity variations in the number of vehicles to be included in the cable transport system; and (iii) limits to the number of passengers to board as a means of managing queues at cable car intermediate stations. It has also been considered a practical example of a cable car transport with a middle station to identify scenarios for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of passenger transport in this system. The decision support tool developed has a strong practical relevance, allowing to evaluate the impact of different parameters of the cable transport system, contributing this way to substantiate of the decision on: (i) the configuration to be used in new systems; and (ii) the need to change existing systems

Indústria 4.0 no setor dos transportes - Sistema de apoio à decisão baseado em modelos de simulação

Os últimos anos foram marcados por alguns eventos adversos a nível global, como ataques terroristas, desastres naturais, recessões económicas e a atual crise pandémica. Estes eventos refletem um ambiente global em constante mudança, gerando incerteza e vulnerabilidade na gestão das cadeias de abastecimento e dos transportes em concreto. No sector dos transportes rodoviários em Portugal, além de existirem problemas em termos estruturais que afetam a sua atividade no geral, têm ocorrido grandes mudanças num curto intervalo de tempo, numa economia em mudança em que as oportunidades económicas estão cada vez mais relacionadas com novas formas de mobilidade de pessoas, de bens e particularmente da informação. Nesta era do digital, em que a indústria 4.0 está a revolucionar e revigorar todas as operações dos transportes, é importante perceber as vantagens oferecidas pela quarta revolução de forma a mudar comportamentos e aproveitar oportunidades. Neste contexto, a presente dissertação apresenta como objetivo, compreender de que forma a Indústria 4.0 e as suas tecnologias de atuação, mais concretamente a simulação, pode servir de suporte na gestão mais eficiente das empresas que operam no setor dos transportes. Com este propósito, foi construída uma ferramenta de apoio à decisão baseada na Dinâmica de Sistemas (DS), que aborda os principais fatores que influenciam a atividade dos transportes para auxiliar os gestores na tomada de decisões, tendo por base os fluxos de carga através da comparação de vários cenários. Na construção da ferramenta, recorreu-se a informação disponibilizada pela base de dados de uma empresa do setor, com considerável crescimento e larga experiência na atividade e, a informações legais relacionadas com o setor dos transportes. Assim com a presente dissertação, pretende-se que a utilização da simulação suportada no software Vensim, possibilite ao utilizador de testar, analisar e prever os fluxos de carga face a cenários de atividade em função das variáveis que pretenda analisar, antecipar necessidades de recursos para cumprir com o serviço de entregas e tomar decisões sobre os custos da distribuição e o preço do serviço fornecido.The last few years have been marked by some adverse events at the global level, such as terrorist attacks, natural disasters, economics recessions and the current pandemic crisis. These events reflect an ever-changing global environment, generating uncertainty and vulnerability in the supply chains management and transport. In the road transport sector in Portugal, in addition to structural problems that affect its activity in general, there have been major changes in a short period of time, in a changing economy in which economic opportunities are increasingly related to new forms of mobility of people, goods and particularly information. In this digital age, where industry 4.0 is revolutionizing and reinvigorating all transport operations, it is important to understand the advantages offered by the fourth revolution to change behavior and seize opportunities. In this context, this dissertation aims to understand how Industry 4.0 and its operating technologies, specifically simulation, can support the more efficient management of companies operating in the transport sector. With this purpose, a decision support tool based on System Dynamics (SD) was built, which addresses the main factors influencing transport activity to assist managers in decision making based on cargo flows through comparison of various scenarios. In building the tool, we used information provided by the database of a company in the sector, with considerable growth and extensive experience in the activity and legal information related to the transport sector. Thus, with this dissertation, it is intended that the use of simulation supported in the Vensim software, enables the user to test, analyze and predict the load flows against activity scenarios depending on the variables that they intend to analyze, anticipate resource needs to comply with the delivery service and make decisions about distribution costs and the price of the service provided

Analytics tool for assessing innovative mobility concepts, vehicles and city policies (CitScale)

The CitScale tool is a software platform for visualizing, analyzing and comparing the impacts of new mobility concepts in urban models with special emphasis on new automotive vehicles or those based on innovative mobility concepts aimed at reducing environmental impacts. CitScale is simulation software agnostic. Using traffic simulation techniques requires executing multiple independent replications for each scenario in an experimental design, and each replication generates a huge amount of data that is not easy to analyze or compare. The analysis and comparison of experiments and scenarios is based on global, link-based and path-based key performance indicators from the perspective of users and mobility authorities while covering the scope of driver-type and transport mode.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Analytics tool for assessing innovative mobility concepts, vehicles and city policies (CitScale)

The CitScale tool is a software platform for visualizing, analyzing and comparing the impacts of new mobility concepts in urban models with special emphasis on new automotive vehicles or those based on innovative mobility concepts aimed at reducing environmental impacts. CitScale is simulation software agnostic. Using traffic simulation techniques requires executing multiple independent replications for each scenario in an experimental design, and each replication generates a huge amount of data that is not easy to analyze or compare. The analysis and comparison of experiments and scenarios is based on global, link-based and path-based key performance indicators from the perspective of users and mobility authorities while covering the scope of driver-type and transport mode.Peer Reviewe