Study of the Effect of Heterogenety of Traffic on Intercity Roadways Using Computer Simulation

Study of the basic traffic flow characteristics and estimation of PCU values are the pre-requisites to develop standards for capacity and service-volume and to formulate effective traffic regulation and control measures. This is better done by modeling the system, which will enable the study of the influencing factors over a wide range. Computer simulation has emerged as an effective technique for modelling traffic flow due to its capability to account for the randomness related to traffic. This paper is concerned with application of a simulation model of heterogeneous traffic flow, named HETEROSIM, to derive PCU values of the different categories of vehicles, taking a stretch of an intercity road in India as the case for the study. The results of the study, provides an insight into the complexity of the vehicular interaction in heterogeneous traffic.