faq 114524171

Is MATSim microscopic or mesoscopic? and why?

by F.USA on 2017-10-17 19:14:38

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Comments: 1

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Re: Is MATSim microscopic or mesoscopic? and why?

by Kai Nagel on 2017-10-18 15:11:43

At Los Alamos, during TRANSIMS times, we always said "low fidelity micro-simulation". Since we resolve each individual entity (vehicles, drivers, traffic signals, links, intersections, ...). But we do this with low fidelity.

In transport, the term "mesoscopic" seems more normal. I don't think that the term "mesoscopic" is well defined; it normally just means something between microscopic and macroscopic. My own working definition for the last years has been that, in traffic, a mesocopic model denotes a model that resolves individual vehicles, but that does not include multiple lanes in the same direction, and thus no lane changing behavior.

So in that sense I would call MATSim mesoscopic. Other people, especially outside MATSim, may not agree, I don't know.

Note that the newest incarnations of MATSim now also model kinematic waves with a piecewise linear fundamental diagram. This is achieved via a so-called "double-ended queue". See http://matsim.org/the-book , in some late chapter by Gunnar Flötteröd.