Procedures for Calibrating TRANSYT Platoon Dispersion Model

Abstract

The paper demonstrates some inherent limitations of the TRANSYT software with regard to calibration of the recursive platoon dispersion model and, more specifically, modification of the travel time factor. Subsequently, the paper develops a procedure that overcomes this limitation by adjusting the average link travel time to control the value of the travel time factor indirectly. Furthermore, the paper presents numerical examples that provide a preliminary investigation of different calibration procedures of the recursive relationship. Although the dataset used for this purpose was generated using the INTEGRATION microscopic traffic-simulation software, the procedures are general and intended for use with field data. The calibration procedure developed in this paper is demonstrated to produce the best results in terms of simplicity and accuracy.