Final Customer
New York Department of Transportation (NYCDOT)
Prime Contractor
Cambridge Systematics and STV Inc.
Location
Jersey, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan, NYC, USA
Dates
Initial build: September 2009 – September 2011, Ongoing related projects
Manhattan Traffic Model (MTM)
MULTI-RESOLUTION MODELING
LARGE-SCALE
AIMSUN NEXT
The MTM is one of the most complex large-scale simulation models in existence – an analytical tool that permits the consistent assessment of the network-wide cumulative impact of current and future traffic management projects.
As sub-consultant to Cambridge Systematics and STV, Aimsun took care of the building, data integration, calibration and validation for the micro model and also for the mesoscopic traffic model that covers Manhattan south of 179th Street and regional facilities to/from Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Bronx and New Jersey. The initial trip table for the mesoscopic study area was extracted from NYMTC’s BPM model.
Value Added Initiatives
In order to study the impact of various scenarios on traffic circulation on the Sheridan Expressway, NYCDOT commissioned STV Inc., Cambridge Systematics and Aimsun to develop and calibrate both a mesoscopic model and a hybrid model of the wider area.
The Sheridan Expressway mesoscopic model was a wide sub-area extraction from the larger area Manhattan Traffic Model (MTM) with added details and highway extensions in the Bronx. Underlying travel demand patterns and growth forecasts were extracted from the New York Best Practices Model (NYBPM) of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC), the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the New York City region.
In addition to evaluating scenarios at the mesoscopic level, the team applied a hybrid modelling approach to further assess changes in traffic patterns along alternative routes, especially in the vicinity of Sheridan Expressway and the Hunts Point peninsula. This allowed the team to study certain critical locations, such as complex merge and weaving segments, in microscopic detail within a larger mesoscopic model. First, the team developed and calibrated a mesoscopic model applying Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) according to the Dynamic User Equilibrium (DUE) principle. Then the modelers selected any areas that required microscopic detail and ran the hybrid model.
For over 10 years, Aimsun's dynamic, multi-resolution simulation software has been instrumental in NYCDOT's traffic analyses for critical multi-modal transportation projects in the city. These projects have included highway and street redesigns, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, busways, Select Bus Service (BRT) corridors, construction MPT plans, and transit signal priority and connected vehicle studies.
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