Preface

Document Organization

This user guide is organized in four parts:

• Getting Started
  
• Creating a Simulation Project
  
• Running a Simulation Project
  
• Simulation Logic and Vehicle Movement Models

About the Developer

Dr. Washburn specializes in the application and development of microscopic traffic simulation tools. His experience in this area dates back to the early 1990’s, starting with modifying the source code for INTRAS (INtegrated TRAffic Simulation) to test alternate freeway on-ramp metering timing strategies. In 2000, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) transferred the rights of CORSIM (CORridor SIMulation), a successor package to INTRAS, to the McTrans Center at the University of Florida. Over approximately the following 10 years, Dr. Washburn worked with McTrans on several projects to enhance the capabilities of CORSIM, including the implementation of two-lane highway modeling, toll plaza modeling, High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane modeling, and the calculation of additional performance measures (percent-time-spent-following, follower density, and acceleration variance).

Over approximately the last 12 years, Dr. Washburn has led the development of SwashSim, a microscopic traffic simulation tool. SwashSim employs many of the same vehicle movement models as used in CORSIM, but with numerous refinements and enhancements. Unlike CORSIM, SwashSim is built on a modern software architecture (object-oriented, C#/.NET). This modern software architecture for SwashSim provides the ability to easily expand and enhance the tool to accommodate recent and future focus areas in transportation modeling, such as autonomous and connected vehicles, artificial intelligence, and digital twins.