Traffic Visualisation and Simulation Models
The use of micro visualisation and simulation are becoming common place in the transport planning sector. They offer analysts and decision makers alike the ability to actually see the impact of a development or project as it might appear in realty.
Hastings Northern Arterial, New Zealand
There have been various proposals to remove through traffic from Hastings urban area. In 2004 GPC conducted a traffic study of the wider region and concluded that a high specification arterial should be built to the north of Hastings. However, there remained significant concerns over the design and operation of the new road:
- The council needed to check sight lines at key intersections from a drivers perspective;
- Visual impact of the highway was of concern; and
- Council officers needed to demonstrate to both decision makers and community representatives how the new road would perform.
GPC were commissioned in 2006 to look into ways these issues could be addressed. We decided to use "UC-win/Road", a real time Virtual Reality program that allows the generation and use of 3D environments through simple PC operations. In 2005 GPC and the company that developed UC-win/Road, Forum 8, teamed up to provide an interface that could transfer TRACKS model outputs to the VR program automatically - this is the first project where this specific interface has been used.
UC-win/Road allows modellers to insert TRACKS networks into 3D environments that contain roads, bridges, rivers, buildings, trains, harbours and ports, parks and houses, city streets, and aerial photos. It can also simulate different times of the day and different weather conditions which is useful for analysing the roading projects under different driving conditions.
The model will provide decision makers and community representatives with:
- A 3D model of the new road containing 3D buildings and trees;
- Screen shots and animations of the road in operation to demonstrate visual impacts;
- Predefined drive through animations under different driving conditions;
- Interactive drive through animations under different driving conditions. UC-win/Road has a special feature which allows users to drive through the models themselves using a control consol;
For more information about UC-win/Road and Forum 8 please click on the logo below:
