Streamlining of the Traffic Modeling Process for Implementation in the Twin Cities Freeway Network

Summary

Comprehensive methodologies are proposed for improving the quality of both freeway and arterial intersections traffic volumes for the purpose of enabling and improving traffic simulations. Specifically, established and enhanced procedures for checking and correcting freeway temporal errors are integrated with an optimization-based algorithm for reconciling spatial inconsistencies in freeway traffic counts. In addition to this, an empirical methodology is further integrated to balance arterial intersection traffic counts. The proposed methodologies have been successfully automated and implemented as two computer programs, i.e., TradaX for processing freeway volume and ArtBaT for arterial intersection traffic counts. Initial evaluations of these tools suggest that they have the potential of reducing total modeling time by 25% ~ 30%, while resulting in improved calibration of simulation models, more reliable analysis, and better use of staff resources for meeting project deadlines.