34 research outputs found
An Open-Source Microscopic Traffic Simulator
We present the interactive Java-based open-source traffic simulator available
at www.traffic-simulation.de. In contrast to most closed-source commercial
simulators, the focus is on investigating fundamental issues of traffic
dynamics rather than simulating specific road networks. This includes testing
theories for the spatiotemporal evolution of traffic jams, comparing and
testing different microscopic traffic models, modeling the effects of driving
styles and traffic rules on the efficiency and stability of traffic flow, and
investigating novel ITS technologies such as adaptive cruise control,
inter-vehicle and vehicle-infrastructure communication
Automatic and efficient driving strategies while approaching a traffic light
Vehicle-infrastructure communication opens up new ways to improve traffic
flow efficiency at signalized intersections. In this study, we assume that
equipped vehicles can obtain information about switching times of relevant
traffic lights in advance. This information is used to improve traffic flow by
the strategies 'early braking', 'anticipative start', and 'flying start'. The
strategies can be implemented in driver-information mode, or in automatic mode
by an Adaptive Cruise Controller (ACC). Quality criteria include cycle-averaged
capacity, driving comfort, fuel consumption, travel time, and the number of
stops. By means of simulation, we investigate the isolated strategies and the
complex interactions between the strategies and between equipped and
non-equipped vehicles. As universal approach to assess equipment level effects
we propose relative performance indexes and found, at a maximum speed of 50
km/h, improvements of about 15% for the number of stops and about 4% for the
other criteria. All figures double when increasing the maximum speed to 70
km/h.Comment: Submitted to ITSC - 17th International IEEE Conference on Intelligent
Transportation System
From Drivers to Athletes -- Modeling and Simulating Cross-Country Sking Marathons
Traffic flow of athletes in classic-style cross-country ski marathons, with
the Swedish Vasaloppet as prominent example, represents a non-vehicular system
of driven particles with many properties of vehicular traffic flow such as
unidirectional movement, the existence of lanes, and, moreover, severe traffic
jams. We propose a microscopic acceleration and track-changing model taking
into account different fitness levels, gradients, and interactions between the
athletes in all traffic situations. The model is calibrated on microscopic data
of the Using the multi-model open-source simulator
MovSim.org, we simulate all 15 000 participants of the Vasaloppet during the
first ten kilometers.Comment: 8 pages, contribution to the conference Traffic and Granular Flow '13
in Juelich. Will be included in the Conference proceedings (Springer
Theoretical vs. Empirical Classification and Prediction of Congested Traffic States
Starting from the instability diagram of a traffic flow model, we derive
conditions for the occurrence of congested traffic states, their appearance,
their spreading in space and time, and the related increase in travel times. We
discuss the terminology of traffic phases and give empirical evidence for the
existence of a phase diagram of traffic states. In contrast to previously
presented phase diagrams, it is shown that "widening synchronized patterns" are
possible, if the maximum flow is located inside of a metastable density regime.
Moreover, for various kinds of traffic models with different instability
diagrams it is discussed, how the related phase diagrams are expected to
approximately look like. Apart from this, it is pointed out that combinations
of on- and off-ramps create different patterns than a single, isolated on-ramp.Comment: See http://www.helbing.org for related wor