Plans

In our micro-simulation, travelers follow plans. In our do-it-yourself traffic simulation, we only look at cars. Cars have complete routes in their plans.

Route plans always include variants of the following information:

StartTime, StartLoc, Node1, Node2, ..., EndLoc.

• StartTime: Time-of-day when the traveler wants to start. We always use seconds past midnight.

• StartLoc: Starting location. For us, this is the link ID where the trip starts.

• Node1: First node of route plan.

• Node2, etc.: The following nodes of the route plan.

• EndLoc: The final destination of the trip. For us, this is the link ID where the trip ends.

In terms of programming, this means:

1. We need a mechanism to read plans.

2. We need a data structure (``parking queue'') where to keep vehicles/plans until their starting time.

3. We need a data structure (''waiting queue'') where to keep vehicles/plans which are beyond their starting time, but have not been able to move into the traffic because of congestion.

4. We need a mechanism to move vehicles from the parking queue to the waiting queue.

5. We need a mechanism to move vehicles from the waiting queue on to the start link.

6. We need a mechanism to move vehicles across an intersection so that they follow plans.

In principle, the plans file can contain the whole daily plan for each individual traveler in the simulation. For the time being, we will however identify car trips and vehicles, and skip the remaining information in the plans file, if any.

Implementation