The Roles of Traffic Models
Traffic
Analysis Tools
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Traffic models optimize, evaluate and simulate the operations of transportation facilities and systems. Optimization models produce the best designs for traffic systems from simple intersections to sophisticated urban networks. Software evaluation and simulation models evaluate existing operations and predict probable outcomes for proposed design alternatives. As the transportation system becomes more sophisticated and complex, transportation professionals must find innovative ways to efficiently operate existing systems with limited resources. The primary functions of transportation models are to:
Evaluate Innovative Transportation Management ConceptsThe availability of traffic models greatly expands the opportunity for the development of new and innovative transportation management concepts and designs. Transportation professionals are no longer restricted to testing ideas in the field. Traffic models produce information that allows these professionals to identify the weaknesses in concepts and designs and provide the basis for identifying the optimal form of an approach. Results generated by these models can form the basis for selecting the most effective alternative and hence the eventual field deployment will have a high probability of success. Decrease Time and Cost for Evaluation and DesignWith the development of advanced user interfaces and the evolution of faster and multiple processor units, traffic models are becoming more user-friendly and a lot faster. This should make models more attractive to transportation professionals by delivering time and cost savings. Using models to design and evaluate transportation facilities will result in more efficient and cost-effective transportation systems. In the past, road networks were operating at well below capacity, and traffic congestion was not an issue. Highway construction was the main remedy anytime demand increased and transportation facilities started to worsen. Now congestion continues to clog out transportation infrastructures as systems become more and more sophisticated and complex. The old way of doing things (i.e., analyzing, optimizing and evaluating systems and facilities by hand) is not good enough anymore. Today and into the future, transportation professionals need tools that allow them to evaluate new, highly sophisticated and costly hardware and software systems associated with ITS. Models can greatly assist practitioners in evaluating deployments of these systems; however, as the technologies advance, model developers must adapt their products to the changing analysis requirements. Reduce Risk and Disruption to Traffic Caused by Field ExperimentationTraffic models offer transportation professionals the opportunity to test new and innovative transportation management systems concepts without the inconvenience of field tests. Traffic models are more practical than field experimentation for a number of reasons including:
Provide Better Relative Evaluation of Design and Operational Improvements Traffic models are used to assist transportation professionals and decision makers in producing sound designs and evaluations of transportation facilities and systems. Data generated by models include several measures of effectiveness that cannot be easily obtained from field studies. Using these measures of effectiveness for various scenarios and the fact that most of the models can be used in a deterministic nature (i.e., being able to get the same output and results for multiple runs), the user is able to get better relative evaluations of designs and operational improvements. Gauge the Operation of Transportation Facilities and SystemsIn order to operate our systems and facilities more efficiently, transportation practitioners must have tools that can evaluate performance. Models can effectively measure performance. One of the biggest challenges is adapting models to produce the desired measures which vary based on the type of system being evaluated. |
