Tech Report HCIL-98-10

Plaisant, C., Tarnoff, P., Keswani, S., Saraf, A., Rose, A. (October 1998)
Understanding Transportation Management Systems Performance with a Simulation-Based Learning Environment
Proceeding of Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems' 99, ITS'99, Washington, DC, ITS America, Washington DC, http://www.itsa.org (CD ROM proceedings) 1999.
HCIL-98-10, CS-TR-3947, UMIACS-TR-98-60, ISR-TR-98-59

We have developed a simulation-based learning environment to provide system designers and operators with an appreciation of the impact of incidents on traffic delay. We used an application framework developed at the University of Maryland for constructing simulation-based learning environments called SimPLE (Simulated Processes in a Learning Environment). Environments developed with SimPLE use dynamic simulations and visualizations to represent realistic time-dependent behavior and are coupled with guidance material and other software aids that facilitate learning. The simulation allows learners to close freeway lanes and divert traffic to an arterial road. Users can see the effect of the detour on freeway and arterial delay. Users can then adjust signal timing interactively on a time space diagram and watch the effect of their adjustment on green band changes and on arterial delays and total delays.