TRANSPORT SOLUTIONS
& ENERGY
Development of a Customized Local Traffic Simulator
(LOCALSIM)
Sean Hilario O. Palmiano, PhD
National Center for Transportation Studies
E-mail: [email protected]
Traffic congestion has long been a problem in Metro Manila, causing hours-long
commutes and economic losses worth 3.5 billion pesos a day, according to
estimates by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
The LOCALSIM project seeks to help solve the traffic management problem
through the development of a microscopic traffic simulation software that can be
used by road and traffic engineers and planners to serve as a decision support
system. This toll provides evidence-based analyses and evaluations of alternative
traffic schemes that can help guide traffic managers of local government units to
come up with the best traffic management solution without resorting to trial- and
-error implementation. The use of this locally developed traffic software tool is
also more accessible as it is relatively inexpensive compared to other currently
available commercial simulators.
The software’s computational algorithm is developed with the specific intention
of replicating and animating the effect of local driving behaviors (e.g. tailgating,
propensity for lane changing, and aggressive driving maneuvers of local public
utility vehicles in the Philippines). As such, models that represent vehicle-to-
vehicle and vehicle-to-road interactions and behaviors were formulated,
calibrated, verified, and validated.
As a pilot study, the entire link-and-node network representation of EDSA, a
major arterial highway in Metro Manila, was created using LOCALSIM to
demonstrate its practical use. Sample simulations were run to test the effect of
38 | UP Diliman SALIKSIKHAY