The advantages of micro simulation in traffic modelling with reference to the N4 platinum toll road

Abstract

Paper presented at the 20th Annual South African Transport Conference 16 - 20 July 2001 "Meeting the transport challenges in Southern Africa", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT: Micro simulation has been used to a limited extend in the past in South Africa, despite major advantages of this tool above static modelling and it’s popularity overseas. The main advantages are dynamic modelling and visual interpretation of the traffic conditions. This tool is ideal to test geometric designs, traffic controls and a variety of traffic management measures. These include incident and congestion management, road works, ramp metering, VMS, etc. It is an extremely suitable tool to use when low cost solutions must be found because of severely limited infrastructure resources. Times that micro simulation was not able to calculate and show reliable traffic situations is over, various traffic simulation models have developed and have reached high quality standards. Micro simulation is about to gain a real market share all around the world; South Africa is following. Modelling toll plazas at interchanges on the N4 Platinum Toll Road is used to illustrate the advantages of micro simulation. Geometric design options, measures effecting toll throughput and traffic control options were evaluated in this example as well as the estimation of the expected life span of various options within a congested network. The package used in this study is AIMSUN2, an advanced micro simulation package widely used internationally that can interact with TRANSYT, SCOOT, EMME/2 and SATURN. AIMSUN2 has been applied to traffic impact analysis, traffic control measures, HOV-lanes, tolling and geometric design within the last three years in South Africa. It has also been used successfully to convey results of investigations to non-technical people.