Comparison of Two Simulation Approaches to Safety Assessment: Cellular Automata and SSAM
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 6
Abstract
A study is conducted to compare two simulation methods for estimating conflicts between road users. An improved cellular automata (CA) model is proposed to estimate the occurrences and severity of traffic conflicts (both vehicle–vehicle and vehicle–pedestrian) at signalized intersections. The proposed CA model is compared with a calibrated method of a surrogate safety assessment model (SSAM) based on Vissim. Simulated conflicts from both methods are compared with observed vehicle conflicts from automated vehicle tracking for both occurrences and severity. Simulation results show that the CA approach is able to replicate realistic conflicts. However, SSAM tends to overestimate occurrences and underestimate the severity of rear-end and lane-change conflicts. SSAM has also been found to overestimate the severity of crossing conflicts. Furthermore, the proposed CA model is able to estimate conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the editorial board and anonymous reviewers for their comments and valuable suggestions to improve the manuscript. This study is supported by the Ministry of Education AcRF Tier II Grant (ARC18/14) of Singapore.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 6 • June 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 1, 2014
Accepted: Nov 20, 2014
Published online: Jan 13, 2015
Published in print: Jun 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Jun 13, 2015
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