The role of traffic simulation in traffic signal control system development

In USA, traffic simulation was originally developed to evaluate the traffic signal control system in the 1970s by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This paper first introduces the traffic signal control system software development process developed at Traffic Research Laboratory, in which traffic simulation is integrated to develop, debug, test and evaluate traffic signal control system software. The topics related to traffic simulation software and the interface between traffic simulation and traffic signal control devices are discussed. Next, those key roles are demonstrated in five prototype developments under FHWA's Adaptive Control System programs. Finally, the future activities in this area, including FHWA's Next Generation of Simulation program, the ACS-Lite program, the National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol compliant interface in CORSIM, and the possibilities of creating a benchmark test network and CORSIM application server are discussed.