The Microsimulation Model for Assessing the Impact of Inbound Traffic Flows for Container Terminals Located near City Centers

The growth of container transport places increasing demand on traffic, especially in situations where container terminals are located near the city centers. The main problem is traffic congestion on networks caused by the integration of Heavy-Duty Vehicles and urban traffic flows. The main objective is to identify the critical traffic parameters which cause negative organizational and environmental impacts on the existing and future traffic demand. A micro-level traffic simulation model was implemented for the testing of the proposed framework-based supply, demand, and control layers. The model was generated and calibrated based on the example of a mid-size Container Terminal "Brajdica" and the City of Rijeka, Croatia. The results indicate that the critical parameters are Queue Length on the approach road to the Container Terminal and the Stop Delay on the main city corridor. High values of these parameters cause negative effects on the environment because of increased fuel consumption and the generation of extra pollution. Due to this problem, a sensitivity analysis of the traffic system performance has been conducted, with a decrement of Terminal Gate Time distribution by 10%. After re-running simulations, the results indicate the impact of subsequent variation in Terminal Gate Time on the decrease of critical parameters, fuel consumption, and vehicle pollution.