An Efficient Road Traffic Modeling through a Novel Real Time Traffic Simulator

Abstract

Dynamic traffic control is a challenging task that involves meeting rising traffic demands and cutting down on intersection delays. The existing yellow/red/green light fixed transition periods used by traffic controllers make it impossible for them to adapt to changing real-time traffic conditions at intersections. Furthermore, it would be impractical to hire traffic officers for every intersection throughout the day due to a lack of personnel, and even if sufficient personnel are available, it would be a very expensive set up. A fuzzy based traffic model was designed and simulated in real time conditions using the developed traffic simulator algorithm to control the traffic jamming at road intersections. The developed fuzzy model was based on three fuzzy inputs and its performance was measured for 13 cases of varying road width. The developed model outperformed the traditional fixed-time delay model in all the cases and the level of improvement was further increased when the congestion was high. Narrower roads were more congested and the improvement with fuzzy systems as compared to its fixed time delay counterparts was as high as 26%. This research findings clearly support the use of fuzzy logic for handling the most challenging problem of traffic congestion in densely populated regions.