FHWA's Traffic Research Lab (TREL) : searching for keys to unlock the nation's gridlock in Public Roads, Vol. 63, No. 2

007701700033-37351999PDFJournal ArticleTraffic engineeringTraffic characteristicsTraffic simulationTransportation planningResearchLaboratoriesTraffic Research LaboratoryHighwaysOperations and Traffic ManagementSafety and Human FactorsVehicles and EquipmentUnited StatesUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationMorales, JuanGhaman, Raj S.Rekenthaler, Doug, Jr.United States. Federal Highway AdministrationNTL-OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLS-OPERATIONS AND TRAFFIC CONTROLSNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-PLANNING AND POLICYIntelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program OfficeToday, with limited available right of way and austere budgets, states can no longer rely on construction or untested technologies to solve their congestion problems. As a result, the states are doing more modeling and managing their resources more wisely. The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Traffic Research Laboratory (TReL) is part of this effort. Although designed primarily to support FHWA's research and development needs, it is possible for states and cities to use this laboratory. TReL combines advanced hardware, software, and communications systems to support the research, development, analysis, testing, evaluation, and integration of transportation management systems and technologies. TReL capabilities include isolated device testing in offline and online environments, systems integration testing, and Traffic Management Center operations research. After simulating alternatives and assessing their impact, the user can determine the desirable alternative and test its implementation. TReL has several integrated tools for simulating and assessing traffic conditions: CORSIM simulates traffic and traffic control conditions on combined surface street and corridor networks; TRAFVU is a visualization processor for the CORSIM microscopic traffic simulation system that allows the user to animate traffic simultaneously in multiple views of the traffic network under the same or different conditions; and PASSER IV is a program for optimizing signal timings on arterials and multi-arterial closed-loop networks