VISSIM

VISSIM
Developer(s) PTV Planung Transport Verkehr AG
Stable release VISSIM 5.30 (2010)
Operating system Microsoft Windows
Type Multi-modal micoscopic traffic flow simulation
License Software license agreement
Website http://www.vissim.de/

VISSIM is a microscopic multi-modal traffic flow simulation software. It is developed by PTV Planung Transport Verkehr AG in Karlsruhe, Germany. The name is derived from “Verkehr In Städten - SIMulationsmodell” (German for “Traffic in cities - simulation model”). VISSIM was started in 1992 and is today a global market leader.

Contents

Microscopic simulation

“Microscopic simulation”, sometimes called microsimulation, means that each entity (car, train, person) of reality that is to be simulated is simulated individually, i.e. it is represented by a corresponding entity in the simulation, thereby considering all relevant properties. The same holds for the interactions between the entities. The opposite would be a “macroscopic simulation”, in which the description of reality is shifted from individuals to “averaged” variables like flow and density. The corresponding product from the same manufacturer is called VISUM.

Multi-modality

“Multi-modal simulation” describes the ability to simulate more than one type of traffic. All these types can interact mutually. In VISSIM the following types of traffic can be simulated

Scope of application

The scope of application ranges from various issues of traffic engineering (transport engineering, transportation planning, signal timing), public transport, urban planning over fire protection (evacuation simulation) to 3d visualization (computer animation, architectural animation) for illustrative purpose and communication to the general public.

Scientific foundations

The basic traffic model ruling the movement of vehicles was developed by Rainer Wiedemann in 1974 at Karlsruhe University. It is a car-following model that considers physical and psychological aspects of the drivers.

The model underlying pedestrian dynamics is the Social Force Model by Dirk Helbing et al. from 1995.

Scientific award

PTV AG has founded a bi-annual scientific award for scientific work related to VISSIM and other PTV products.[1] Participation is open for any researcher.

Literature

External links

References

  1. ^ PTV Scientific Award