Microscopic simulation to evaluate the traffic congestion mitigation strategies on urban arterials

Traffic congestion mitigation has many facets. Simulation modelling is of the useful tools for evaluating the congestion mitigation strategies and improvements. In the present study, VISSIM was selected as the simulation tool for microscopic modelling and evaluation. A comprehensive set of possible mitigation scenarios were identified after reviewing the existing literature and practices. Ring road in the Delhi's National Capital Territory was chosen for the case study. Several mitigation scenarios were developed. For evaluating these scenarios the Performance Measures chosen include; (a) Traffic volumes (b) Average speeds (c) Network performance (d) Individual link performance (e) Travel delay (f) Travel time (g) Change in Congestion Index. These performance measures were compared with the base case. It was observed that the traffic management option performs better vis-a-vis other alternatives. This study also suggests a methodology for measurement of micro level traffic characteristics in the congested corridors/locations.