Calibration and validation of PARAMICS for freeway using toll data

There are many parameters embedded in PARAMICS, a microscopic traffic simulation model. The model must be calibrated before use, to ensure the results derived from it to be realistic and reasonable. This paper presents a procedure for the calibration and validation of PARAMICS with toll data. The important parameters of PARAMICS are identified using 2^k-p fractional factorial design and calibrated by using the detailed vehicle-by-vehicle toll data. A freeway in Guangdong Province, China, has been selected as test site. The simulation results after calibration and validation show that the target headway, mean reaction time, simulation step, aggressive distribution are affected simulation precision most deeply, and the calibrated simulation model is able to adequately represent freeway traffic conditions.