A simulation-driven internet-based predictive traffic information hub

The Internet has enabled travelers to be kept updated with traffic and related travel information on their computer screens, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), and hand phones. The information can be either real-time or predictive. It has long been the interest of researchers to develop suitable methodologies and algorithms to obtain accurate predictive information about traffic conditions based on historical and/or current data. In this paper, the possibility of employing microscopic simulation to generate traffic and travel information that can be made available through the Internet is demonstrated The predictive information includes traffic speed, travel time and route guidance. PARAMICS, a sophisticated microscopic simulation program is used as the simulation engine behind the information generation process. The role of PARAMICS is to create a comprehensive database consisting of predictive information which is kept updated at pre-specified time intervals. The Application Programming Interface (API) of PARAMICS has been used to control and manage the whole process of information generation. The paper focuses on describing this process in detail.