Center for Traffic Simulation Studies

This paper presents a micro-simulation method to evaluate potential ATMIS applications. Based on the commercial Paramics model, a capability-enhanced Paramics simulation environment, Paramics-E, has been developed by integrating a number of plug-in modules implemented with application programming interfaces (API). These APIs complement the functionalities of the commercial Paramics model and enable real-time traffic data collection, processing and communication, as well as control of operations through dynamic linking. This enhanced Paramics simulation can model not only target traffic conditions and operations but also various potential ATMIS strategies.An evaluation study of the effectiveness of potential ATMIS strategies under incident scenarios is conducted in Paramics-E over a corridor network located in Irvine, California. The potential ATMIS strategies include incident management, local adaptive ramp metering, coordinated ramp metering, traveler information systems, corridor control, and a combination of the above. Based on the calibrated simulation model, we implement and evaluate these scanarios. The results show that all ATMIS strategies have positive effects on network performance. Because of the network topology (one major freeway with two parallel arterial streets), the real-time traveler information system has the greatest benefit of all single ATMIS component. A combination of several ATMIS components, such as corridor control and the combination scenario, can generate better benefits.