Simulation and Evaluating of Traffic Flow for Hillah City Using VISSIM and GIS Programs

Abstract The transportation network is crucial for modern society, with roads being essential for passenger and goods transportation. Al-Hillah, a highly congested center in Babylon province, experiences congestion due to its strategic location as a major transit route and the presence of vitality centers like education, commerce, and government. The main goals of this study are to evaluate the service level of the current traffic situation on the road network using the VISSIM software and to know the extent of the network’s connectivity using the GIS program. The whole length of the Hillah Road network as well as the number of nodes and linkages are among the data collected. These links represent major and minor arterials and vehicle movement surveys, both external and internal, from the center city for peak periods, vehicle classification, and geometric characteristics for each link and node in the network. Then a collection of parameters was computed for assessing the road network, which is considered one of the quantitative indicators used to measure network connectivity, such as β the index, α the index, γ the index and η the index. The results showed that the study sites operate with a high level of service LOS (F), and on the basis of this, some improvements were suggested to improve the level of service and reduce congestion.