Development of a Network Traffic Simulator for the Entire Inter-urban Expressway Network in Japan

This paper describes the development of a network traffic simulator for the entire inter-urban expressway network in Japan. With recent developments, the network topology is getting more complex, and traffic prediction based on statistical analysis is becoming harder since it does not take into account the drivers’ behavioural changes on the network. Looking at the issue from the seeds and needs perspective, there would be needs to develop a network traffic simulator dealing with traffic flow dynamics and driver behaviors. From the seeds side, road operators are now motivated to utilize the electronic toll collection (ETC) trip data collected every time a vehicle passes an ETC tollgate located at interchanges. Fully using ETC data is expected to improve the accuracy of time-dependent O-D matrix and route choice behavior model which is important in simulation studies. In this paper, the concept of traffic modeling and route choice behavior modeling in the expressway network simulation will be described, followed by calibration of time-dependent O-D matrix.