On Sat, 5 Aug 2006 8:29:54 +0100, Mike Hughes wrote
Yes, it's good fun. Especially interesting is to look at the effect of the Politeness Factor on traffic flows. One I'm looking at right now is the On Ramp simulation, with 1700v-hr main, and 400v-hr on the ramp.
Set the politeness low and everything snarls up - mbuttive delays on both the main road and the ramp. Set it high and the ramp has some long delays, but probably no worse than with no politeness - but the main flow keeps going fairly well. I guess that's (partly) the idea behind the traffic lights installed at more and more junctions to control the amoount of joining traffic.
Something else that's fairly easy to see in several simulations (but the lane closure one is good as it allows you to vary the limit) is the effect of speed. Problems seem to occur when you have a big mismatch of speed (like when there's a queue on the ramp but the main road is moving freely), someone eventually moves lane, making everything slow down, then you get the ripples of slow moving traffic.
There's one thing missing from these simulations though - there isn't a slider for % of clueless f***wits ! I'd love to see a 3 lane simulation with a slider for Centre Lane Only Drivers (CLODs).
Simon
