| Airport terminal roadway and curbside operation is an integral part of the entire airport operation. Certain rule of thumb methods and simple mathematical functions have been used in the past for the design and evaluation of airport terminal curbspace and curbside parking activities. With the continuously strong growth in air passenger demand and limited landside space in almost all of the major airports, these methods are not able to provide adequate information for engineers, planners and airport managers to make appropriate decisions.; In this research we propose a computer simulation model that helps airport planners and managers conduct detailed operational analyses of airport terminal roadway traffic and curbside vehicle parking activities. The major logic components built into the model include those for vehicular traffic generation, vehicle movement, lane selection and changing, curbside parking space selection, and pedestrian crosswalks. The major output statistics generated by the model, which also demonstrate the model's performance capability, include: vehicle system time, number of vehicles entering and leaving the terminal roadway, number of vehicles parked (single-, double-, and triple-parked) along the curbside, number of vehicles queued at the terminal roadway entry, number of vehicles that cannot find a curbside parking space due to congestion, and vehicle delays.; The model was validated by using field-collected traffic information from Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. Due to the difficulty of data collection, three major elements: roadway exit traffic volume, vehicle's system time, and number of parked vehicles were validated. The validation results showed that the model has an excellent capability in predicting exit traffic volume and vehicle system time. It is somewhat difficult to clearly identify the number of parked vehicles along the entire curbside; thus a fair comparison of the parked vehicles between the model output and the real traffic data is not likely.; Some application examples have been investigated. These examples represent engineering (curb space closure), traffic operation (change of curbside parking control measure), and planning (various traffic demand levels) applications that are commonly observed in all airports. The model and some of its variations (to cope with specific operational situations) have already been used in many major airports in the US and worldwide. The model has demonstrated its capability in providing vigorous information for architecture, engineering, planning, and traffic operational and management needs. |
