Rural traffic characteristics using field data and the developed simulation model

This study has mainly focused on studying the characteristics of selected rural roads in Iraq using the developed simulation model and S-Paramics in order to enrich the area of developing such traffic simulation model calibrated with field data. Thus, several sites, such as Baghdad-Hilla, Baghdad-Mahmudiyah, Baghdad-Kut, Baghdad-Diyala and Najaf-Kerbala, have been investigated such as two and three-lane sections. This paper has three objectives; first, to investigate driver behavior mostly according to collected data of lane changing, lane utilization, flow and time headway. The second objective is to develop simulation model starting from car-flowing and ending with the process of calibrating it graphically and statistically with field data. The third objective is to calibrate the well-known S-Paramics model with field data and comparing it with the developed model. More than 80hrs have been collected using video cameras placed on footbridges as vantage points. The graphical and statistical analyses demonstrate more accurate for the developed model with field data than S-Paramics model. This model may be considered as the first step towards modeling driver behavior in Iraqi rural roads and enhance this model to represent different behaviors according to the collected data.