Paramics is traffic microsimulation software developed by Quadstone Paramics. Quadstone Paramics also develops pedestrian microsimulation software called the Urban Analytics Framework.
Contents
Background
The Paramics project was originally established in the early 1990s by the UK Department for Transport and was further developed as a project by the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, based at the University of Edinburgh.
By the mid 1990s, some of the project staff left to form Quadstone Limited. A partnership was formed between Quadstone Limited and SIAS but was quickly dissolved in 1998 as both parties could not agree on the direction of the partnership.
In 2005, Quadstone was acquired by Portrait Software. Today, Quadstone Paramics operates as an autonomous division within Pitney Bowes Business Insight.
Concept
Paramics was created from scratch based on several models and mainly on the paper “A model for traffic simulation” by Hans-Thomas Fritzsche. Paramics uses the car-following and lane-changing model to show the correlation of numerical data for road networks under differing conditions through the use of computer graphics.
A Paramics model is represented by a combination of “nodes, links and other associated objects” to replicate real life geometry constraints. Upon release from an “origin zone”, each vehicle attempts to complete its journey towards a “destination zone” whilst being bounded by physical and dynamic vehicle parameters.
Through the use of microsimulation, Paramics allows users to simulate individual vehicle movements to predict future travel pattern behaviour as a result from a change in traffic volume or geometric road layout.
A number of plug-ins were developed in the early 2000s by researchers at the University of California, Irvine for the California Department of Transportation. The plug-ins were developed using APIs, and included actuated signal, multiple actuated signal timing plan, actuated signal coordination, detector data aggregator, ramp metering control, on-ramp queue override control, ALINEA ramp metering control, BOTTLENECK ramp metering control, SWARM ramp metering control, and Freeway MOE.
Traffic simulation
Compared to traditional empirical modelling which is based on an aggregated representation of traffic, microsimulation allows for real time vehicle movement and is able to simulate queuing conditions for congested networks.
The software is used by government agencies, consultancies and universities for the purpose of simulating and analyzing existing traffic and transportation problems. The software has been designed to handle various scenarios which include:
Pedestrian simulation
The Urban Analytics Framework is a microsimulation software developed to simulate pedestrian behavior in real world environments. The software is used in shared space designs to investigate road safety issues and to quantify potential conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
The software is used by the public and private sector to conduct shared space designs between vehicle and pedestrian interaction [20]. The software has been designed to simulate different pedestrian scenarios which include: