Safety critical decisions are made by gathering information from a heteregenous systems providing radio communications, weather predictions, sensor and video data, etc. We are exploring how advanced user interfaces and information visualization can improve operators' situation awareness and decision making ability in routine and emergency situations. We are developing a simulation-based learning environment, called TrafficSim, to provide system designers and operators with an appreciation of the impact of incidents on traffic delay. Environments developed with SimPLE use dynamic simulations and visualizations to represent realistic time-dependent behavior and are coupled with guidance material and other software aids that facilitate learning. The simulation allows learners to close freeway lanes and divert traffic to an arterial road.
Users can see the effect of the detour on freeway and arterial delay.
Users can then adjust signal timing interactively on a time space diagram and watch the effect of their adjustment on green band changes and on arterial delays and total delays.