Date of Award

Spring 2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Electrical Engineering

Committee Director

Roland R. Mielke

Committee Member

James F. Leathrum, Jr.

Committee Member

Frederic D. McKenzie

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55 Y55 2002

Abstract

Many traffic simulation tools exist for developing traffic simulations; these tools can be divided broadly into two categories — macro simulation tools and micro simulation tools. These two categories of simulation tools are directed at modeling the extremes of traffic systems: very large systems and very small systems. There is a class of intermediate-sized transportation networks for which neither category of simulation tools might perform adequately. Additionally these specialized traffic simulation tools have a high learning curve. For developing medium sized traffic simulations in a short period of time, one might choose to use a familiar general-purpose discrete event simulation tool, like Arena.

A traffic simulation model was developed for the Busch Gardens traffic system by the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center. The focus of the simulation was to evaluate parking strategies for vehicles entering the Busch Gardens Theme Park from a new highway interchange. Arena was chosen to develop the simulation model of this medium sized traffic system. A design methodology was developed in the process of constructing this simulation model. The geographically small areas on the traffic system diagram where entities are created, destroyed, or logical decisions are made concerning movement, are identified. These regions are called decision points. The simulation code for each decision point is developed independently, and the decision points are interconnected using simple road models. This approach is extremely important in a project of this size because it allows the programming to be divided among a number of developers who can work in parallel on different decision points. The simulation was designed to monitor the performance measures of interest to the Busch Gardens park management staff. The results of several case studies conducted with the simulation are discussed.

The approach of modeling traffic networks as a set of interconnected decision points is generalized to develop a traffic template in Arena. The strategy developed in the Busch Gardens project is that a traffic network model can be constructed by modeling intersections, interconnecting these intersections with roadways, and then populating the roadways with vehicles. The new traffic template consists of a source lane module to generate entities that act as vehicles, a sink module to destroy entities as they exit the traffic network, a lane module to simulate lanes in roadways and a selection of typical decision points to model intersections.

A simulation model of a small part of the city traffic network for Norfolk, Virginia, is developed to demonstrate the utilization of the traffic template in the development of a traffic simulation. The decision point methodology is utilized to decompose the network into several decision points, and the modules in the traffic template are used to build the traffic network simulation in Arena. The simulation is designed to conduct case studies to investigate the effect of traffic light timing on traffic conditions during peak traffic hours.

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DOI

10.25777/vtym-1g65

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