Room 6C/6E Traffic Dynamics for the Roundabout vs Traffic Lights Simulator

Friday, October 12, 2012: 8:00 PM
6C/6E (WSCC)
George Duntley, BS , Computer Science, Universidad Politecnica, Guaynabo, PR
Juan Sola, PhD , Computer Science, Universidad Politecnica, Hato Rey, San Juan

In recent years the municipality of Guaynabo has increased the number of roundabouts. In many cases, they are replacing traffic lights so it has attracted great public interest .In order to understand better the benefits of doing so we are building a simulator to compare them. First ,we need to understand the characteristics of each. According to the United States Department of Transportation roundabouts reduce the number of accidents. The goal is to compare them on ,how many cars does each allow to pass in a time frame?

The simulator is being built with video game tools and principles. For the engine we are using the open source tool JmonkeyEngine; Nifty GUI for the user interface. State machines for the car’s behavior. Scene drawings to build the intersections.

Future work is to refine upon these concepts and build a fully functional version.

Acknowledgments to the Department of Public Works of the municipality of Guaynabo for granting me an audience and material of study for this project.