Using Cellular Automata in Traffic Modeling

The paper presents a traffic simulator intended to be used in Bucharest, Romania, in order to solve usual traffic problems and obtain better traffic management performances with the same basic route network. The simulator makes short time traffic predictions starting from data extracted from real traffic. Usually, traffic predictors use statistic methods instead of simulation techniques. The advantage of a performant simulation over statistic prediction comes mainly from its ability to treat the untypical situations, exactly the ones that need a precise prediction. The traffic simulator is based on cellular automata model, a very simple and regular massive parallel model, which is able to make real time computations in such complex situations that the traffic simulations imply. The cellular automata simulator has been adapted to the topology given by the Bucharest city center map and its performances were tested in various real situations. The simulation proved to be very performant in cases like two-lane streets intersections, narrowing due to accidents or street repairs etc.