Development of a Traffic Microsimulation Tool with the Incorporation of Variations in Driver Behaviors

Traffic simulation is a field that is gaining popularity among researchers and practitioners due to various benefits and applications. This research aims to develop a traffic microsimulation model using an object-oriented approach. The proposed approach will also consider variations in driver behavior. The approach was applied as a prototype on a busy four-leg intersection in Bahrain. The available data consisted of turning movement counts on the intersection at three different times of the day. The tool applied the movement to simulate the flow in each lane of the said intersection. It was observed that the proposed tool could simulate the flow with reasonable accuracy without any evidence of bias which could result in under or over-estimation of results. These encouraging results pave the way for further use of the tool for application on other types of road segments and intersections. It is expected that this tool will provide valuable insights for road safety analysis.