Simulating a Three-Lane Roundabout Using SUMO

Transportation issues have imposed major challenges in many countries around the world, especially in large urban areas. A great deal of such challenges is related to factors such as: speed limits of particular sites, minimum safe distance between two vehicles, and the uncertainty inherent to drivers’ behaviour. These apply to urban and inter-urban roads, to traffic flow models, and to traffic control at intersection points. Nowadays, there are several problems that lead to traffic congestion. Just to mention a few of them: waiting queues, drivers’ increased reaction time after an accident, traffic shock waves, not abiding by intersections rules, and many others. Roundabouts are an example of spots where congestion represents a huge problem in need of a careful analysis in order to be solved. In this paper we will examine the effect of speed and acceleration reduction/increase within a roundabout, as well as the reduction of the minimum distance between vehicles, drawing conclusions about their flow throughout the roundabout. We use a method that combines several factors inherent to SUMO default car-following model (i.e. Krauss’ model) in order to understand which configuration gives us higher performance in terms of throughput. Calibration was also a very important aspect to achieve good and realistic values. Future research will be needed to further study speed reduction relative to roundabouts. In addition, it will be necessary to calibrate the model, according to driver behavioural aspects of the studied region.