Gridlock
Do you have questions or comments about this model? Ask them here! (You'll first need to log in.)
WHAT IS IT?
Students control traffic lights in a real-time traffic simulation. The teacher controls overall variables, such as the speed limit and the number of cars. This allows students to explore traffic dynamics, which can lead into many areas of study, from calculus to social studies.
Challenge the students to develop strategies to improve traffic and discuss the different ways to measure the quality of traffic.
The coordinates for the traffic lights are based on the first quadrant of the Cartesian plane. Therefore, the traffic light with the coordinates (0,0) is in the lowest row and the left-most column. The traffic light above it has coordinates (0,1) and the traffic light to the right of it has (1,0).
For further documentation, see the Participatory Simulations Guide found at http://ccl.northwestern.edu/ps/
HOW TO USE IT
Quickstart instructions
Contains instructions as to how to quickly setup the model, and clients to run this activity. The instructions can be found below and can be seen progressively in the Quick Start instructions monitor in the Interface:
Teacher: Follow these directions to setup the HubNet activity.
Optional: Zoom In (see Tools in the Menu Bar)
Change the traffic grid (using the sliders GRID-SIZE-X and GRID-SIZE-Y) to make enough lights for everyone.
Change any other of the settings that you would like to change. For example, if you plan on running Gridlock in the MANUAL mode, be sure to have AUTO? set to OFF.
Press the SETUP button.
Press the LOGIN button.
Everyone: Open up a HubNet Client on your machine and input the IP Address of this computer, type your user name in the user name box and press ENTER.
Teacher: Once everyone is logged in and has a light, stop the LOGIN button by pressing it again.
Everyone: Whichever mode AUTO? is set for in NetLogo, you will control your intersection in a different way:
If you have chosen MANUAL, you can change the state of your light by pressing the CHANGE LIGHT button.
If you have chosen AUTO, you can change the phase of your light by moving the PHASE slider to a different position.
Teacher: Once everyone is ready, start the simulation by pressing the GO button.
Teacher: You may want to view some of the plots. Do this by changing the PLOTS-TO-DISPLAY chooser, which changes the plot displayed for everyone.
- Choose 'No Plots' to turn off all the plots.
- Choose 'Stopped Cars' to see the STOPPED CARS plot.
- Choose 'Average Speed of Cars' for the AVERAGE SPEED OF CARS plot.
- Choose 'Average Wait Time of Cars' for the AVERAGE WAIT TIME OF CARS plot.
- Choose 'All three plots' for all the plots.
Teacher: To run the activity again with the same group, stop the model by pressing the GO button, if it is on. Change the values of the sliders and switches to the values you want for the new run. Press the SETUP button. Once everyone is ready, restart the simulation by pressing the GO button.
Teacher: To start the simulation over with a new group, stop the model by pressing the GO button, if it is on, press the RESET button in the Control Center and follow these instructions again from the beginning.
Buttons
SETUP - generates a new traffic grid based on the current GRID-SIZE-X and GRID-SIZE-Y and NUM-CARS number of cars. This also clears all the plots. If the size of the grid has changed the clients will be assigned to new intersections.
GO - runs the simulation indefinitely
LOGIN - allows users to log into the activity without running the model or collecting data
REFRESH PLOTS - redraws the plots based on the current value of PLOTS-TO-DISPLAY. Useful for looking at different plots when GO is off.
Sliders
SPEED-LIMIT - sets the maximum speed for the cars
NUMBER - the number of cars in the simulation (you must press the SETUP or RE-RUN buttons to see the change)
SIMULATION-SPEED - the speed at which the simulation runs
TICKS-PER-CYCLE - sets the maximum value that the phase can be. This has no effect when the model is run with AUTO? false. Also, the phase that each user chooses is scaled to be less than or equal to this value.
GRID-SIZE-X - sets the number of vertical roads there are (you must press the SETUP button to see the change)
GRID-SIZE-Y - sets the number of horizontal roads there are (you must press the SETUP button to see the change)
Choosers
PLOTS-TO-DISPLAY - determines which plot is drawn in NetLogo:
- No Plots.
- STOPPED CARS
- AVERAGE SPEED OF CARS
- AVERAGE WAIT TIME OF CARS
- All three plots.
Switches
CRASH? - toggles car crashing
POWER? - toggles the presence of traffic lights
AUTO? - toggles between automatic mode, where the students' lights change on a cycle, and manual in which students directly control the lights with their clients. Lights which aren't associated with clients always change on a cycle.
Plots
STOPPED CARS - displays the number of stopped cars over time
AVERAGE SPEED OF CARS - displays the average speed of cars over time
AVERAGE WAIT TIME OF CARS - displays the average time cars are stopped over time
Client Information
After logging in, the client interface will appear for the students. The controls for manual and automatic mode are both included, but which one works is based on the setting of the AUTO? switch in NetLogo. In MANUAL mode, click the CHANGE LIGHT button to switch the state of the light you control. In AUTO mode, move the PHASE slider to change the phase for your light. The phase determines what percent of the way through the cycle to switch on.
THINGS TO NOTICE
When cars have stopped at a traffic light, and then they start moving again, the traffic jam will move backwards even though the cars are moving forwards. Why is this? Discuss in your class possible reasons for this phenomena.
THINGS TO TRY
Try changing the speed limit for the cars. How does this affect the overall efficiency of the traffic flow? Are fewer cars stopping for a shorter amount of time? Is the average speed of the cars higher or lower than before?
Try changing the number of cars on the roads. Does this affect the efficiency of the traffic flow?
How about changing the speed of the simulation? Does this affect the efficiency of the traffic flow?
Using HubNet, try running this simulation with AUTO? being true and AUTO? being false. Is it harder to make the traffic move well using one scheme or the other? Why?
Using HubNet, try running this simulation with AUTO? being true. Try to find a way of setting the phases of the traffic lights so that the average speed of the cars is the highest. Now try to minimize the number of stopped cars. Now try to decrease the average wait time of the cars. Is there any correlation between these different metrics?
EXTENDING THE MODEL
Currently, the maximum speed limit (found in the SPEED-LIMIT slider) for the cars is 1.0. This is due to the fact that the cars must look ahead the speed that they are traveling to see if there are cars ahead of them. If there aren't, they speed up. If there are, they slow down. Looking ahead for a value greater than 1 is a little bit tricky. Try implementing the correct behavior for speeds greater than 1.
HOW TO CITE
If you mention this model in a publication, we ask that you include these citations for the model itself and for the NetLogo software:
- Wilensky, U. and Stroup, W. (1999). NetLogo HubNet Gridlock model. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/HubNetGridlock. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
- Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright 1999 Uri Wilensky and Walter Stroup.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Commercial licenses are also available. To inquire about commercial licenses, please contact Uri Wilensky at uri@northwestern.edu.
This activity and associated models and materials were created as part of the projects: PARTICIPATORY SIMULATIONS: NETWORK-BASED DESIGN FOR SYSTEMS LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS and/or INTEGRATED SIMULATION AND MODELING ENVIRONMENT. The project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (REPP & ROLE programs) -- grant numbers REC #9814682 and REC-0126227.
Comments and Questions
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Variable declarations ;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; globals [ grid-x-inc ;; the amount of patches in between two roads in the x direction grid-y-inc ;; the amount of patches in between two roads in the y direction acceleration ;; the constant that controls how much a car speeds up or slows down by if it is to accelerate or decelerate phase ;; keeps track of the phase num-cars-stopped ;; the number of cars that are stopped during a single pass thru the go procedure old-display-which-metric ;; holds the value of display-which-metric for the last time through the go procedure ;; patch agentsets intersections ;; agentset containing the patches that are intersections roads ;; agentset containing the patches that are roads ;;quick start instructions variables quick-start ;; the current quickstart instruction displayed in the quickstart monitor qs-item ;; the index of the current quickstart instruction qs-items ;; the list of quickstart instructions ] turtles-own [ speed ;; the speed of the turtle up-car? ;; this will be true if the turtle moves downwards and false if it moves to the right wait-time ;; the amount of time since the last time a turtle has moved ] patches-own [ intersection? ;; this is true if the patch is at the intersection of two roads accident? ;; this is true if a crash has occurred at this intersection. this will never be true for a non-intersection patch green-light-up? ;; this is true if the green light is above the intersection. otherwise, it is false. this is only true for patches that are intersections. my-row ;; this holds the row of the intersection counting from the upper left corner of the view. it is -1 for patches that are not intersections. my-column ;; this holds the column of the intersection counting from the upper left corner of the view. it is -1 for patches that are not intersections. user-id ;; this holds the user-id that corresponds to the intersection. it is -1 for patches that are not intersections. my-phase ;; this holds the phase for the intersection. it is -1 for patches that are not intersections. ] ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Setup Functions ;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; to startup setup setup-quick-start hubnet-reset end ;; Initialize the display by giving the global and patch variables initial values. ;; Create num-cars of turtles if there are enough road patches for one turtle to be created per road patch. ;; Setup the plots ;; All code in setup is done if full-setup? is true. If it is false, then it doesn't clear the information ;; about the users; users still retain the same light that they had before. ;; "setup false" is done by the re-run button. to setup clear-output clear-turtles clear-all-plots let full-setup? ((grid-x-inc != (world-width / grid-size-x)) or (grid-y-inc != (world-height / grid-size-y))) setup-globals ifelse full-setup? [ let users map [[user-id] of ?] sort patches with [is-string? user-id] let phases map [[my-phase] of ?] sort patches with [is-string? user-id] clear-patches setup-patches setup-intersections ;; reassign the clients to intersections (foreach users phases [ get-free-intersection ?1 ask intersections with [ user-id = ?1 ] [ set my-phase ?2 ] ]) ] [ setup-intersections ] set-default-shape turtles "car" if (number > count roads) [ user-message (word "There are too many cars for the amount of road. " "or GRID-SIZE-Y sliders, or decrease the number of cars by lowering " "the NUMBER slider.\nThe setup has stopped.") stop ] ;; Now create the turtles and have each created turtle call the functions setup-cars and set-car-color crt number [ setup-cars set-car-color record-data ] ;; give the turtles an initial speed ask turtles [ set-car-speed ] reset-ticks end ;; Initialize the global variables to appropriate values to setup-globals set phase 0 set num-cars-stopped 0 set grid-x-inc world-width / grid-size-x set grid-y-inc world-height / grid-size-y ;; don't make acceleration 0.1 since we could get a rounding error and end up on a patch boundary set acceleration 0.099 end ;; Make the patches have appropriate colors, setup the roads and intersections agentsets, ;; and initialize the traffic lights to one setting to setup-patches ;; initialize the patch-own variables and color the patches to a base-color ask patches [ set intersection? false set accident? false set green-light-up? true set my-row -1 set my-column -1 set user-id -1 set my-phase -1 set pcolor brown + 3 ] ;; initialize the global variables that hold patch agentsets set roads patches with [ (floor ((pxcor + max-pxcor - floor(grid-x-inc - 1)) mod grid-x-inc) = 0) or (floor ((pycor + max-pycor) mod grid-y-inc) = 0) ] set intersections roads with [ (floor ((pxcor + max-pxcor - floor(grid-x-inc - 1)) mod grid-x-inc) = 0) and (floor ((pycor + max-pycor) mod grid-y-inc) = 0) ] ask roads [ set pcolor white ] end ;; Give the intersections appropriate values for the intersection?, my-row, and my-column ;; patch variables. Make all the traffic lights start off so that the lights are red ;; horizontally and green vertically. to setup-intersections ask intersections [ set intersection? true set green-light-up? true set my-phase 0 set my-row floor ((pycor + max-pycor) / grid-y-inc ) set my-column floor ((pxcor + max-pxcor) / grid-x-inc ) set-signal-colors ] end ;; Initialize the turtle variables to appropriate values and place the turtle on an empty road patch. to setup-cars ;; turtle procedure set speed 0 set wait-time 0 put-on-empty-road ifelse intersection? [ ifelse random 2 = 1 [ set up-car? true ] [ set up-car? false ] ] [ ifelse (floor ((pxcor + max-pxcor - floor(grid-x-inc - 1)) mod grid-x-inc) = 0) [ set up-car? true ] [ set up-car? false ] ] ifelse up-car? [ set heading 180 ] [ set heading 90 ] end ;; Find a road patch without any turtles on it and place the turtle there. to put-on-empty-road ;; turtle procedure move-to one-of roads if any? other turtles-here [ put-on-empty-road ] end ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Runtime Functions ;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; receives information from the clients and runs the simulation to go ;; get commands and data from the clients listen-clients every delay [ ;; clear any accidents from the last time thru the go procedure clear-accidents ;; if there are any intersections that are to switch automatically, have them change their color set-signals set num-cars-stopped 0 ;; set the turtles speed for this time thru the procedure, move them forward their speed, ;; record data for plotting, and set the color of the turtles ;; to an appropriate color based on their speed ask turtles [ set-car-speed fd speed record-data set-car-color ] ;; crash the cars if crash? is true if crash? [ crash-cars ] ;; update the clock and the phase clock-tick ] end ;; reports the amount of seconds by which to slow the model down to-report delay ifelse simulation-speed <= 0 [ report ln (10 / 0.001) ] [ report ln (10 / simulation-speed) ] end ;; have the traffic lights change color if phase equals each intersections' my-phase to set-signals ask intersections with [ phase = floor ((my-phase * ticks-per-cycle) / 100) and ( auto? or user-id = -1 ) ] [ set green-light-up? (not green-light-up?) set-signal-colors ] end ;; This procedure checks the variable green-light-up? at each intersection and sets the ;; traffic lights to have the green light up or the green light to the left. to set-signal-colors ;; intersection (patch) procedure ifelse power? [ ifelse green-light-up? [ ask patch-at -1 0 [ set pcolor red ] ask patch-at 0 1 [ set pcolor green ] ] [ ask patch-at -1 0 [ set pcolor green ] ask patch-at 0 1 [ set pcolor red ] ] ] [ ask patch-at -1 0 [ set pcolor white ] ask patch-at 0 1 [ set pcolor white ] ] end ;; set any intersection's color that had an accident back to white and make accident? false to clear-accidents if crash? [ ask patches with [accident?] [ set pcolor white set accident? false ] ] end ;; set the turtles' speed based on whether they are at a red traffic light or the speed of the ;; turtle (if any) on the patch in front of them to set-car-speed ;; turtle procedure ifelse pcolor = red [ set speed 0 ] [ ifelse up-car? [ set-speed 0 -1 ] [ set-speed 1 0 ] ] end ;; set the speed variable of the turtle to an appropriate value (not exceeding the ;; speed limit) based on whether there are turtles on the patch in front of the turtle to set-speed [delta-x delta-y] ;; turtle procedure let turtles-ahead turtles-on patch-at delta-x delta-y ;; if there are turtles in front of the turtle, slow down ;; otherwise, speed up ifelse any? turtles-ahead [ let up-cars?-ahead [up-car?] of turtles-ahead ifelse member? up-car? up-cars?-ahead and member? (not up-car?) up-cars?-ahead [ if not crash? [ set speed 0 ] ] [ set speed [speed] of one-of turtles-ahead slow-down ] ] [ speed-up ] end ;; decrease the speed of the turtle to slow-down ;; turtle procedure ifelse speed <= 0 ;;if speed < 0 [ set speed 0 ] [ set speed speed - acceleration ] end ;; increase the speed of the turtle to speed-up ;; turtle procedure ifelse speed > speed-limit [ set speed speed-limit ] [ set speed speed + acceleration ] end ;; set the color of the turtle to a different color based on how fast the turtle is moving to set-car-color ;; turtle procedure ifelse speed < (speed-limit / 2) [ set color blue ] [ set color cyan - 2 ] end ;; keep track of the number of stopped turtles and the amount of time a turtle has been stopped ;; if its speed is 0 to record-data ;; turtle procedure ifelse speed = 0 [ set num-cars-stopped num-cars-stopped + 1 set wait-time wait-time + 1 ] [ set wait-time 0 ] end ;; crash any turtles at the same intersection going in different directions to crash-cars ask intersections with [any? turtles-here with [up-car?] and any? turtles-here with [not up-car?]] [ set accident? true set pcolor orange ] end ;; increases the clock by 1 and cycles phase to the next appropriate value to clock-tick tick ;; The phase cycles from 0 to ticks-per-cycle, then starts over. set phase phase + 1 if phase mod ticks-per-cycle = 0 [ set phase 0 ] end to hide-or-show-pen [name-of-plot] ifelse plots-to-display = "All three plots" or plots-to-display = name-of-plot [ __plot-pen-show ] [ __plot-pen-hide ] end ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Quick Start functions ;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; instructions to quickly setup the model, and clients to run this activity to setup-quick-start set qs-item 0 set qs-items [ "Teacher: Follow these directions to setup the HubNet activity." "Optional: Zoom In (see Tools in the Menu Bar)" "Change the traffic grid (using the sliders GRID-SIZE-X and..." "GRID-SIZE-Y) to make enough lights for everyone." "Change any other of the settings that you would like to change." "For example, if you plan on running Gridlock in..." "the MANUAL mode, be sure to have AUTO? set to OFF." "Press the SETUP button." "Press the LOGIN button." "Everyone: Open up a HubNet Client on your machine and..." "type your user name, select this activity and press ENTER." "Teacher: Once everyone is logged in and has a light..." "stop the LOGIN button by pressing it again." "Everyone: Whichever mode AUTO? is set for in NetLogo,..." "you will control your intersection in a different way." "If you have chosen MANUAL,..." "you can change the state of your light by pressing..." "the CHANGE LIGHT button." "If you have chosen AUTO,..." "you can change the phase of your light by moving..." "the PHASE slider to a different position." "Teacher: Once everyone is ready,..." "start the simulation by pressing the GO button." "Teacher: You may want to view some of the plots." "Do this by changing the PLOTS-TO-DISPLAY chooser,..." "which changes the plot displayed for everyone." "Choose No Plots to turn off all the plots..." "Choose Stopped Cars to see the STOPPED CARS plot..." "Choose 2 Speed of Cars the AVERAGE SPEED plot..." "Choose 3 Average Wait Time of Cars the AVERAGE WAIT plot..." "or Choose 'All three plots' for all the plots..." "Teacher: To run the activity again with the same group,..." "stop the model by pressing the GO button, if it is on." "Change any of the settings that you would like." "Press the SETUP button." "Teacher: Once everyone is ready,..." "restart the simulation by pressing the GO button." "Teacher: To start the simulation over with a new group,..." "stop the model by pressing the GO button, if it is on..." "Press the RESET button in the Control Center" "and follow these instructions again from the beginning." ] set quick-start (item qs-item qs-items) end ;; view the next item in the quickstart monitor to view-next set qs-item qs-item + 1 if qs-item >= length qs-items [ set qs-item length qs-items - 1 ] set quick-start (item qs-item qs-items) end ;; view the previous item in the quickstart monitor to view-prev set qs-item qs-item - 1 if qs-item < 0 [ set qs-item 0 ] set quick-start (item qs-item qs-items) end ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; Code for interacting with the clients ;; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;; when a command is sent, find out which client sent it and then execute the command to listen-clients while [hubnet-message-waiting?] [ hubnet-fetch-message ifelse hubnet-enter-message? [ give-intersection-coords wait 1 ;; we want to give some time for other clients to log in on this round ] [ ifelse hubnet-exit-message? [ abandon-intersection ] [ ifelse hubnet-message-tag = "Change Light" [ manual hubnet-message-source ] [ if hubnet-message-tag = "Phase" [ auto hubnet-message-source ] ] ] ] ] end ;; when a new client logs in, if there are free intersections, ;; assign one of them to that client ;; if this current-id already has an intersection, give the client that intersection. to give-intersection-coords let current-id hubnet-message-source ifelse not any? intersections with [user-id = current-id] [ ;; the case where they tried logging in previously but there was no room for them ;; or they haven't logged in before get-free-intersection current-id ] [ ;; otherwise, we already have an intersection for the current-id. ;; all we need to do is send where the light is located at ask intersections with [user-id = current-id] [ hubnet-send current-id "Located At:" (word "(" my-column "," my-row ")") ] ] end ;; when a client disconnects, free up its intersection to abandon-intersection ask intersections with [user-id = hubnet-message-source] [ set user-id -1 set my-phase 0 ask patch-at -1 1 [ set plabel ""] ] end ;; if there are any free intersections, pick one of them at random and give it to the current-id. ;; if there are not any free intersections, toss an error and put error values into the list to get-free-intersection [current-id] ifelse any? intersections with [user-id = -1] [ ;; pick a random intersection that hasn't been taken yet ask one-of intersections with [user-id = -1] [ set user-id current-id ask patch-at -1 1 [ set plabel-color black set plabel current-id ] hubnet-send current-id "Located At:" (word "(" my-column "," my-row ")") ] ] [ hubnet-send current-id "Located At:" "Not enough lights" user-message word "Not enough lights for student with id: " current-id ] end ;; switch the traffic lights at the intersection for the client with user-id to manual [current-id] if not auto? [ ask intersections with [user-id = current-id] [ set green-light-up? (not green-light-up?) set-signal-colors ] ] end ;; change the value of the phase for the intersection at (xc,yc) to ;; the value passed by the client to auto [current-id] ask intersections with [user-id = current-id] [ set my-phase hubnet-message ] end ; Copyright 1999 Uri Wilensky and Walter Stroup. ; See Info tab for full copyright and license.
There are 7 versions of this model.
Attached files
File | Type | Description | Last updated | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gridlock.png | preview | Preview for 'Gridlock' | over 11 years ago, by Uri Wilensky | Download |
This model does not have any ancestors.
This model does not have any descendants.