Traffic dynamics on signalized networks are frequently evaluated by microscopic simulation tools such as SimTraffic and Vissim. This paper also presents a macroscopic model to evaluate the commonly used performances indicators for signalized networks, which is based on the cell transmission model. One of our contributions is to precisely model the traffic indicators with queue dissipation time and formation time in every time step. The other contribution is that we compare the commonly used traffic indicators obtained from the three models with a customized case study, where traffic demand increases from light to heavy condition. Case study shows that there exists non-negligible difference between Vissim and the other two models, and the estimates from the CTM-based model and SimTraffic are closer. Case study further shows that the CTM-based model probably underestimates the stop delay and number of stops on an internal link when traffic is oversaturated. Although there exists significant difference, trends of estimates from the three models are roughly the same, which makes more sense when they are used to evaluate the performance of traffic signal timings. The meaning of what we do is that the presented model can be used to estimate the traffic indicators online when the CTM is used to simulate traffic dynamics on signalized networks.

CICTP