Microscopic Traffic Simulation: A Tool for the Design, Analysis and Evaluation of Intelligent Transport Systems

This paper summarises some of the main modelling and interface developments made recently in the AIMSUN microscopic traffic simulator to provide a better response to the requirements for the assessment of ITS systems, advanced transport analysis and ATMS. The description addresses two main areas: improvements on the dynamic assignment capabilities, and the embedding of the simulator in the AIMSUN/ISM (Intermodal Strategy Manager) a versatile graphic environment for model manipulation and simulation based traffic analysis and evaluation of advanced traffic management strategies. AIMSUN/ISM includes two specific tools, the Scenario Analysis Module to generate and simulate the traffic management strategies, and the (ODTool) to generate and manipulate the Origin-Destination matrices describing the mobility patterns required by the dynamic analysis of traffic conditions. The matrix calculation procedures have been implemented on basis to a flexible interface with the EMME/2 transport planning software.