Comparison of Microscopic and Mesoscopic Traffic Modeling Tools for Evacuation Analysis

Evacuation activities can be evaluated using different simulation models. However, recently, microscopic simulation models have become a more popular tool for this purpose. The objectives of this study are to model multiple evacuation scenarios and to compare a microscopic traffic simulation tool (in this case INTEGRATION) against a mesoscopic traffic simulation tool (MATSim). Given that the demand was the same for both models, the comparison was achieved based on two indicators: estimated evacuation time and average trip duration. The results show that the estimated evacuation times in both models are similar since the input traffic demand governed this measure. However, the evaluation also shows a considerable difference between the two models in the average trip duration. The microscopic traffic simulation tool produces logical results with trip durations increasing with increased traffic demand levels and decreasing road capacity scenarios, whereas the average trip duration using the mesoscopic simulation tool decreases with increasing demand levels and increasing road capacity scenarios.