A multi-class urban traffic model considering heterogeneous vehicle composition: An extension of the S model

In this paper a new multi-class urban traffic model is proposed based on the features of a single-class urban traffic model and the characteristics of a multi-class freeway traffic model. The heterogeneous traffic flow is represented using the concept of Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE) for congestion and free-flow regimes separately. The proposed multi-class urban traffic model is intended for model-based control applications. The single-class model and the proposed multi-class traffic model are compared with microscopic simulation data obtained using the SUMO (Simulation of Urban MObility) open-source simulator. The two models are calibrated through optimal parameter estimation and their performance is evaluated and compared by taking into account the error index between the models and the simulation data. Simulation results show that the multi-class model gives a significantly better fit.