VISSIM 5.30-05 User Manual

5 Base Data for Simulation
5.4.4 Lateral Behavior
By default, one vehicle occupies the entire width of one lane in VISSIM. The
lateral behavior parameters enables vehicles to travel at different lateral
positions and also overtake other vehicles within the same lane if it is wide
enough.
These parameters are available:
● Desired position at free flow defines the desired lateral position of a
vehicle within the lane while it is in free flow. The options are: Middle of
Lane, Any or Right resp. Left.
● Observe vehicles on next lane(s): Vehicles also consider the lateral
position of vehicles that are traveling on adjacent lanes and keep the
minimum lateral distance. For this purpose, they even adjust their own
lateral position in their own lane by drawing aside. The simulation also
regards the exact position of the rear ends of vehicles during or after lane
change to adjacent lanes. If this option is not ticked, vehicles in adjacent
lanes are ignored even if their widths exceed the width of their lanes
(except in case of lane changing).
This option will reduce the simulation speed significantly.
● Diamond shaped queuing: Allow for staggered queues (e.g. for
cyclists) according to the realistic shape of vehicles.
● Consider next turning direction: For none lane based traffic, this option
provides improved modeling of the lateral behavior upstream of turns.
If this option is checked, late overtaking of vehicles going through is
avoided in the with-flow direction toward the direction of the turn.
The relevant connector is always the first one downstream in the
vehicle's route which has a desired direction value of "left" or "right". If
138 VISSIM 5.30-05 © PTV AG 2011