Parametric study of microscopic two-dimensional traffic flow models: A literature review

Abstract

Indian traffic is highly heterogeneous consisting of all-inclusive vehicle characteristics, occupying any lateral position over the entire road width which results in vehicles continuous interaction with the neighbouring vehicles (in both longitudinal and lateral directions), indicating two-dimensional (2D) traffic manoeuvre, opposite to the traditional one-dimensional (1D) interaction of vehicles in lane based traffic. Certain modifications were made in the existing 1D models to describe the overtaking and lane changing manoeuvre of the mixed traffic stream. However, the continuous lateral manoeuvre of the no-lane based mixed traffic cannot be described by these parameters. This paper initially provides a brief review of different 2D behavioural models, which describe the longitudinal and lateral movements simultaneously. Also, the various existing commercially available traffic micro-simulation frameworks developed for representing the real traffic are reviewed. Different microscopic traffic parameters used in the existing simulation models to mimic the real-world traffic are identified, which can be used to understand the 2D traffic stream.