Beijing Traffic Integration and Evaluation System (BETIMES)
This extensive project involved the implementation of a Decision Support System (DSS) which includes Scenario Analysis and Generation System (SAGES) and Traffic Plan Builder (TPB) for event management of the Beijing roadway network. The primary purpose of the system is to help the client identify effective traffic management for a given event in advance and build up the traffic response plan database for use of their real-time traffic management system.
SAGES was developed with the application of an integrated macro-scopic and meso-scopic simulation model, Questor and Dynasmart-P. With the capability to simulate the effects of various Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) features such as VMS traveller information advisory, urban signal control, ramp metering, High Occupancy Vehicle lane, and road congestion pricing.
SAGES can:
- Identify in advance locations of primary bottlenecks in the roadway network when an event occurs
- Analyze the cause of the bottlenecks
- Propose several traffic management alternatives (travel information and signal control)
- Evaluate effects of each proposed traffic management alternative on the roadway network
- Store the results in an expert system database for subsequent offline and online retrieval
TPB was developed to assist the BTMB traffic engineer to prepare traffic response plans, including event information, traveller information (i.e., VMS signs and corresponding messages), urban traffic signal control (i.e., traffic signal controllers and signal timing plans), and police dispatch, ready to be implemented for the real-time system. These traffic response plans are pre-built in a database and then retrieved by the request of the online system for alleviating the impacts caused by a traffic event.
TPB interfaces with SAGES. It can send pre-built traffic response plans to SAGES for performance evaluation. In addition, it can request the best traffic control scheme for a specific event from the knowledge database in SAGES and convert the traffic control scheme into a traffic plan.
With the help of the DSS, coordinated traffic management strategies and incident response measures can now be implemented for the Beijing road network.