Comparative study on simulation performances of CORSIM and VISSIM for urban street network

With the progress of simulation technologies, many transportation simulation packages were developed. However, little information is available to the users in applying these models to the most appropriate situations, or even seldom with the simulation accuracy of the individual model. This study conducts a comparative analysis of two popular simulation models (VISSIM and CORSIM), based on their simulation performances on an urban transportation network. Road network and field traffic data from North Bund, Hongkou District, Shanghai, China were used as the simulation background and input. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to compare the performance of both models based on four key indices, namely software usability, average control delay, average queuing length, and cross-sectional traffic volume. Advantages of each simulator were identified based on comparison analyses of simulations with different levels of congestion and intersection geospatial scales. The main performance difference was found lying in the default parameter configuration within the models, including driver behavior settings, traffic environment settings, and vehicle types, etc. Consequently, it was recommended that analysts should choose their appropriate tools based on intersection type and level of saturation within the simulation case.