Comparison of Microscopic and Mesoscopic Traffic Modeling Tools for Evacuation Analysis

Evacuation processes can be evaluated using different simulation models. However, recently, microscopic simulation models have become a more popular tool for this purpose. The objectives of this study are to model multiple evacuation scenarios and to compare the INTEGRATION microscopic traffic simulation model against the MATSim mesoscopic model. Given that the demand was the same for both models, the comparison was achieved based on three indicators: estimated evacuation time, average trip duration, and average trip distance. The results show that the estimated evacuation times in both models are close to each other since the Origin-Destination input file has a long tail distribution and so the majority of the evacuation time is associated when travelers evacuate and not the actual evacuation times. However, the evaluation also shows a considerable difference between the two models in the average trip duration. The average trip duration using INTEGRATION increases with increasing traffic demand levels and decreasing roadway capacity. On the other hand, the average trip duration using MATSim decreases with increasing traffic demand and decreasing the roadway capacity. Finally, the average trip distance values were significantly different in both models. The conclusion showed that the INTEGRATION model is more realistic than the MATSim model for evacuation purposes. The study concludes that despite the large execution times of a microscopic traffic simulation, the use of microsimulation is a worthwhile investment.