An Efficient Sensitivity Analysis Approach for Computationally Expensive Microscopic Traffic Simulation Models

Microscopic traffic simulators are useful tools for designing, evaluating and optimizing transportation systems. In order for a simulator to accurately describe reality, the corresponding traffic model must be properly calibrated. However, the calibration can be rather difficult when the model is computationally expensive and has many parameters. To overcome these difficulties, Sensitivity Analysis (SA) can be applied as an essential instrument for supporting model calibration. Through SA the practitioners can obtain valuable information about the relationship between model inputs and outputs, and hence focus on the proper set of most influential parameters for the calibration. Notice, however, that many quantitative SA techniques may also fail with computationally expensive models.