Truck Behavior and Vehicle Control

Truck Behavior plugin is designed to model the range of lanes and speed that trucks are allowed to operate or usually operate in the field on different sections in a Paramics simulation network. It can also be applied to other vehicle types to achieve the same modeling purpose.

Background:

• Trucks often operate under a lower speed than passenger vehicles
• Trucks operate on some rightmost lanes but may use other lanes when necessary
• Trucks avoid using the rightmost lane if they are part of the through traffic
• Trucks are slower on uphill sections
• Some freeway allocate truck lanes on uphill sections
• Some freeway interchanges include a posted sign indicating that trucks are allowed to use additional lanes
• Some freeway sections include a posted sign providing advisory information to truck (e.g. trucks use low gear)

Plugin Features:

• Models truck movements on a freeway based on field observation
• User can define lane range and/or speed of certain vehicle type(s) on certain links
• User can define the time period(s) of lane and speed control
• Allows multiple control schedules