An Analysis to Validate the Travel Time in Order to Develop an Animated Simulation to Reproduce the Congestion Situation during a Massive Downpour

Scientific and Engineering Simulation Department, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan

Abstract

It is undesirable to face traffic congestion during an emergency. Congestion does not only cause delay to returning home commuters but also impede emergency vehicles. It is necessary to identify the congestion location as well as congestion severity in order to find the causes and countermeasures, furthermore setting priorities among remedial steps to alleviate the severity. In this study, we prepare an animated simulation of returning home behavior of commuters during a downpour. A taxi probe data was used to prepare the simulation. However, a direct visualization of the raw data does not produce a comprehensive representation of the real traffic situation. This study aims at reproducing efficiently the real traffic situation under such condition that can be easily recognized by a simple and quick glance. This paper discusses the method to reproduce the data as well. The proposed method provides a better realization of the traffic condition. The animated simulation that would be built from a preferable pattern can be used to explore the level of congestion in numerous locations and to evaluate the performance of countermeasures to overcome the congestion.