Advanced OR and AI Methods in Transportation CALIBRATION OF A TRAFFIC MICROSIMULATION MODEL AS A TOOL FOR ESTIMATING THE LEVEL OF TRAVEL TIME VARIABILITY

A low level of day-to-day variations in travel time is a major feature of a reliable transport system. There is a growing need for credible tools that can predict the extent of travel time variability. We present methodology for using a traffic microsimulation model as such tool, through a special calibration procedure. Various issues, relating to the variability of simulation outputs and to the concept of using this variability to replicate observed travel time fluctuations, are discussed. To test the proposed calibration methodology, its ability to reproduce various distributions of travel times is examined.