Study On The Application Of Microsimulation And Analytical Techniques In Traffic Impact Analysis

The rapidly development of Chinese Economy brings about a lot of cityconstruction projects. As a result, traffic congestion becomes a widespreadphenomenon in many big cities. To establish a harmonious environmentbetween land use and city traffic becomes a subject of city development atthe present age.Traffic impact analysis is an efficient way to resolve the conflict betweenfast land exploitation and traffic conditions. Generally speaking, trafficimpact analysis is the study on the traffic feasibility of city construction orother land use projects and provides the solutions to which are possibly toyield great traffic impact. Its methods include traffic planning, trafficsimulation, traffic analysis and so on.At present, the implement of traffic impact analysis is confused in ourcountry. Although many city construction and planning departments putforward some related prescriptions about traffic impact analysis, there is nouniform criterion. And the evaluation objects are mainly building constructionprojects and the evaluation method is limited into utilizing macro-analysismodels. Consequently, traffic impact analysis loses its inherent significanceand can not meet the demands of different kinds of evaluation objects.Although there are some studies on this field, a universal framework oftraffic impact analysis is still under developing.Hereby, the research goals of this dissertation are study on a universalframework of traffic impact analysis based on the situation of our countryand a more detailed and evolutionary traffic impact analysis method, whichis the synthetically utilizing of microsimulation and microanalysis technology.The main research content of this dissertation includes the followingthree aspects:1. The framework of traffic impact analysis system: this paper try toestablish a general and universal traffic impact analysis system frameworkincluding implement mechanism, analysis objects, theoretical models andmethods, evaluation criteria system, with the aim to provide theory andtechnique support for government department and researcher.2. Models on traffic microsimulation and microanalysis: this paperpresents a basic classification of traffic simulation and analytical models andreviews several of the important simulation and analytical models in aclassified way. Further more, many existing traffic software are sortedaccording to above classification and introduced.3. Application of microsimulation and microanalysis models: this papercarries out a full traffic impact analysis of a project, in which a new viaductwill be built to serve the heavy traffic generated during the Olympic Game in2008. In the application, PARAMICS and aaSIDRA are chosen as themicrosimulation and microanalysis software.The First step is to analyze the different performance between the oldand new road networks, and to estimate the impact of the new viaduct onthe road network in the target year. A detailed comparison of travel timebetween every two zones in the study fields and the queue length of the oldand new intersection was carried out by PARAMICS. The simulation resultsindicate that all of the evaluation criteria have been improved, and theproject can release the traffic burden of future transportation demandthrough interchange. At the same time, the expressway can share trafficpressure with Longyuan Road and promotes the inhabitants' travelconvenience.But the intersection between Longyuan Road and Airport Road is stillunder heavy traffic burden. So the second step is to optimize the signaltiming and channeling design, as well as the traffic organization and trafficengineering design, which are necessary for safety considering the gradientof the new viaduct and curvature of ramps. This progress is realized withaaSIDRA.The achievements of this dissertation are:1. The establishment of a general and universal traffic impact analysissystem framework which includes traffic impact analysis implementsmechanism, objects of analysis, theoretical models and methods andevaluation criteria system.2. The Utilization of traffic microsimulation software PARAMICS andmicroanalysis software aaSIDRA synthetically to traffic impact analysisfollowed the several progresses: road network performance analysis, signaltiming optimization, channeling design and traffic engineering design.