Models of vehicular traffic: An engineering perspective

The aim of the paper is to present an engineer's viewpoint of traffic streams and their models both at the macroscopic and microscopic levels. The paper concentrates on two classes of macroscopic models (namely, stream description models and travel time estimation models). At the microscopic level the paper concentrates on car-following models and also presents a relatively recent idea on developing a comprehensive microscopic model of driver behaviour. Finally, the paper presents some properties which all microscopic models of traffic flow should possess and also tries to identify areas where research will bring about a qualitative jump in the understanding of how traffic flows.