Hybrid traffic simulation with adaptive signal control. Transportation Research Record

In this paper we implement and apply a hybrid mesoscopic-microscopic model that applies microscopic simulation to areas of specific interest, while simulating a large surrounding network in lesser detail with a mesoscopic model. The hybrid model integrates VISSIM, a microscopic traffic simulation model, and MEZZO, a recently developed mesoscopic model. The hybrid model is applied on a network where MEZZO simulates the entire Stockholm area (6000 links) and VISSIM simulates the area of specific interest containing three intersections with adaptive signal control with bus-priority functions. The adaptive signal control and bus-priority functions are simulated by a separate signal controller simulator (EC1-simulator) which interacts with the hybrid MEZZO-VISSIM model, thereby providing the actual signal changes that would take place in the field. Two alternative control schemes are evaluated using the hybrid set-up: the original fixed-time control and the new adaptive control. The results show clear improvement in terms of travel times, delays and stops with the new adaptive control scheme. They also show that while these improvements for the local (micro) area attract additional traffic from the surrounding (meso) area, the net effects both locally and network wide remain positive, in terms of travel times, average number of stops and delay. Moreover, this paper demonstrates the advantages of hybri