HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road Bottlenecks
Smart mobility is crucial for future smart cities. Traffic simulation software (TSS) is an important tool for efficient planning and management of road networks to achieve this goal. Many TSS tools have been developed for both microscopic and macroscopic homogenous traffic flow. However, only two (S...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Future Transportation |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7590/3/1/22 |
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| author | Ali Zeb Khurram S. Khattak Muhammad Rehmat Ullah Zawar H. Khan Thomas Aaron Gulliver |
| author_facet | Ali Zeb Khurram S. Khattak Muhammad Rehmat Ullah Zawar H. Khan Thomas Aaron Gulliver |
| author_sort | Ali Zeb |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Smart mobility is crucial for future smart cities. Traffic simulation software (TSS) is an important tool for efficient planning and management of road networks to achieve this goal. Many TSS tools have been developed for both microscopic and macroscopic homogenous traffic flow. However, only two (SUMO and HetroSim) are applicable to heterogeneous traffic. In this paper, HetroTraffSim is proposed to simulate macroscopic heterogeneous traffic flows at road bottlenecks. It is developed using the Unity3D engine and is based on a second-order traffic flow model. It is evaluated for a 360 m road segment on University Road, Peshawar, Pakistan. This segment contains a 78.5 m bottleneck which causes traffic congestion. This bottleneck is due to the construction of a pedestrian overhead bridge which reduces the three-lane road to two lanes. HetroTraffSim provides normalized traffic velocity, average traffic density, traffic flow, and time, as well as the temporal and spatial evolution of traffic. The results obtained show that a change in the distance headway affects the traffic flow, velocity, and density. Further, HetroTraffSim can be extended to automated traffic flows using raycasting. It can easily be used to create realistic traffic scenarios and the computational complexity is low due to the small-degree polynomials employed. HetroTraffSim can be used by traffic planners to improve traffic flow and public safety. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:31:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-65b42aeb4e424e468ebad5e887c9a56f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-7590 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T06:31:00Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Future Transportation |
| spelling | doaj.art-65b42aeb4e424e468ebad5e887c9a56f2023-11-17T11:13:55ZengMDPI AGFuture Transportation2673-75902023-03-013136838310.3390/futuretransp3010022HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road BottlenecksAli Zeb0Khurram S. Khattak1Muhammad Rehmat Ullah2Zawar H. Khan3Thomas Aaron Gulliver4National Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC), UET, Peshawar 25000, PakistanNational Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC), UET, Peshawar 25000, PakistanNational Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC), UET, Peshawar 25000, PakistanNational Center for Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC), UET, Peshawar 25000, PakistanDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8W 2Y2, CanadaSmart mobility is crucial for future smart cities. Traffic simulation software (TSS) is an important tool for efficient planning and management of road networks to achieve this goal. Many TSS tools have been developed for both microscopic and macroscopic homogenous traffic flow. However, only two (SUMO and HetroSim) are applicable to heterogeneous traffic. In this paper, HetroTraffSim is proposed to simulate macroscopic heterogeneous traffic flows at road bottlenecks. It is developed using the Unity3D engine and is based on a second-order traffic flow model. It is evaluated for a 360 m road segment on University Road, Peshawar, Pakistan. This segment contains a 78.5 m bottleneck which causes traffic congestion. This bottleneck is due to the construction of a pedestrian overhead bridge which reduces the three-lane road to two lanes. HetroTraffSim provides normalized traffic velocity, average traffic density, traffic flow, and time, as well as the temporal and spatial evolution of traffic. The results obtained show that a change in the distance headway affects the traffic flow, velocity, and density. Further, HetroTraffSim can be extended to automated traffic flows using raycasting. It can easily be used to create realistic traffic scenarios and the computational complexity is low due to the small-degree polynomials employed. HetroTraffSim can be used by traffic planners to improve traffic flow and public safety.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7590/3/1/22traffic simulationsimulations softwareheterogeneous trafficroad bottlenecklane changeUnity3D |
| spellingShingle | Ali Zeb Khurram S. Khattak Muhammad Rehmat Ullah Zawar H. Khan Thomas Aaron Gulliver HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road Bottlenecks Future Transportation traffic simulation simulations software heterogeneous traffic road bottleneck lane change Unity3D |
| title | HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road Bottlenecks |
| title_full | HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road Bottlenecks |
| title_fullStr | HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road Bottlenecks |
| title_full_unstemmed | HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road Bottlenecks |
| title_short | HetroTraffSim: A Macroscopic Heterogeneous Traffic Flow Simulator for Road Bottlenecks |
| title_sort | hetrotraffsim a macroscopic heterogeneous traffic flow simulator for road bottlenecks |
| topic | traffic simulation simulations software heterogeneous traffic road bottleneck lane change Unity3D |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7590/3/1/22 |
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