ABSTRACT
Transportation is a central economic factor in industrialized countries. e associated mobility is also an integral part of our quality of life, self-ful llment, and personal freedom. Today’s tra c demand is predominantly served by individual motor vehicle travel, which is the primary means of transportation. In Germany, for example, motorized vehicles constitute 77% of the individual transport (measured in terms of passengerkilometers) and 70% of the total freight tra c (measured in tonne-km).1 is leads to a growing socioeconomic burden. According to a study by the European Commission, the external costs of congestion already amount to 0.5% of the gross national product (GNP) in the European Union and will increase to 1% by the year 2010.2 However, in view of the restricted space and societal concerns about the environmental impact and energy
consumption, building new infrastructure is rarely a viable option. So, the e cient management of tra c, particularly individual motorized tra c, is one of the greatest challenges, and optimizing the capacity and e ciency of the vehicular networks is of prime importance. In the presence of increasing computing power, realistic microscopic tra c models and the associated simulations are becoming a more and more important tool.
