Web-based macroscopic road traffic simulator

Abstract

Simulator works as an evaluation tool to implement the traffic system planning. However, available traffic simulator prompts the user to install the application to use it. This makes the simulation became exclusively accessible and needs more resource to run. It may hinder the planning process especially when it is done collaboratively. Most available traffic simulators also have not included the real-time traffic data into the simulation by default. It is possible to use those data, but it needs more effort and code-intensive which is not suitable for non-technical users. The real-time traffic data represent the real-world traffic distribution. It can be applied to simulator to simulate the vehicles movement in more realistic way in terms of vehicle distribution. A web-based macroscopic road traffic simulator is proposed by using web technology. It may act as a cloud road traffic simulator services to create an easy-to-access while integrating real-time traffic data. The proposed simulator is discussed in terms of map data preparation, traffic network creation, traffic data integration to simulator, and vehicle generation. Results of current development shows feasibility of implementing the simulator using the web technology. There are constraints faced on developing the simulator which provide more future works to create a web-based macroscopic traffic simulator.