Traffic Simulation of Access Gates for a Major Industrial Site

In cooperation with Airbus, a traffic microsimulation model was built to understand the impact of the design and organization of four entrance gates to a major industrial site. As enhanced security screening of vehicles and passengers became necessary, a traffic microsimulation model was built to test various screening processes. The model simulated single and double-occupancy passenger cars, buses and trucks. Different screening facilities for each vehicle type were tested. In particular, individual iris scans and vehicle X-Ray screening were expected to increase processing times of vehicles. A total of 19 scenarios were explored to expedite the screening process of vehicles and persons entering the site.

The traffic microsimulation model was built with the PTV software Vissim, which allows tracing and visualizing individual vehicles entering the site while being processed through security screening. Evaluation criteria for each screening configuration were vehicle-hours delay and maximum queue length. Video animations were created to visualize traffic flows under different scenarios.

Special attention was given to bus passengers, who have to leave the bus for individual screening, before they can reenter the bus on the other site of the passenger screening facility.

While the delay in the peak hour was not unusually large, it turned out that the accumulated delay over hours became severe in some scenarios. Stricter screening procedures increased the average waiting time significantly. Different scenarios were tested to reduce waiting times while maintaining secure screening procedures.