Model calibration to simulate driving recommendations for traffic flow optimization in oversaturated city traffic

Abstract Long queues at signals cause fuel-consuming stop-and-go traffic. In this work we use a complete microscopic spatiotemporal measurement of congested city traffic at a signal to i) calibrate a both longitudinal and latitudinal driving model and then to ii) examine how changes in single vehicle’s driving behaviour could improve the situation. The model calibration is realized using a genetic algorithm. In this way, a realistic heterogeneous traffic scenario that has similar properties as empirical traffic could be simulated. We then show that already changing the behaviour of a single vehicle per traffic light cycle can significantly reduce the number of vehicles waiting in queues.