Features of Various Traffic Simulation Models

Abstract

In recent years, simulation modeling has become one of the most widely used tools for systems analysis and design. This popularity is due to its ability to answer "what-if" questions to aid system designers in designing more effective new systems and in assessing the impact of various changes on already existing systems. In general way simulation means replication of natural Phenomenon. Drew (1998) defines simulation as dynamic representation of some part of the real world achieved by building a computer model and moving it through time. In traffic simulation each vehicle is moved through the network of transportation facilities on a split second by split second basis according to the physical characteristics of the vehicle. The fundamental rules of motion (e.g. acceleration times time equals velocity, velocity times time equals distance) and rules of driver behavior. The ever-increasing power of personal computers and search for ITS solutions to growing urban transport problems has led to the emergence of a number of microscopic simulation models as practical traffic analysis tools. More than forty years long history computer simulation in traffic analysis has developed from a research tool of limited group of experts to a