Incident management and planning using microsimulation.

Road incidents such as vehicle breakdowns, road crashes or truck load spillage can result in long delays and increases in fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. This paper describes how microsimulation models can be used as a training aid for incident management and planning. It reviews the principles of managing incidents and the current research on incident analysis using simulation. This paper has a focus on freeway incidents because incidents on arterial roads have less severe impact due to easier route diversion on alternative surface streets. A model of Westgate Freeway near the Kingsway on-ramp in Melbourne was set up using the software package AIMSUN NG to ascertain its use for incident analysis. The analysis was carried out at two levels. The first level was when route diversion was not considered and the impact was determined. The severity and duration of the incident were parameters suitable for sensitivity analysis. The second level was when route diversion from the freeway to surface streets was considered and the effect of variable message signs was simulated. The case study satisfactorily demonstrates the use of microsimulation as a tool for incident management. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.