Macroscopic vs. mesoscopic traffic flow models in signal setting design

The simulation of interactions among vehicles approaching signalised junctions, at urban level, is still an open issue. Based on this consideration, this paper aims at comparing the macroscopic and mesoscopic approaches for traffic flow simulation in signalised junctions. In terms of signal setting design, the considered decision variables are the green timings, the scheduling and the offsets thus the three steps optimisation (i.e. each step is referred to the optimisation of each decision variable) has been applied. In particular, the green timings and the scheduling are carried out at single junctions, by multicriteria optimisation, and the offsets are computed by monocriteria optimisation. Finally, the optimisation problems are solved through metaheuristics algorithms.