Identifying the optimal road closure with simulation

Abstract

A transportation authority needs to decide which section of a road should be closed to allow road works. There are often multiple ways to close a section of a road, and the way to close the section can have a significant impact on the traffic flows around the closed section. We use IBM Mega Traffic Simulator version 2 (Megaffic2), an agent-based simulator of traffic flows, to analyze the impact of a road closure on traffic flows for multiple ways of road closures. Our analysis gives insights as to how a section of a road should be closed for road works that are planned in Hiroshima city in Japan.