Abstract—Traffic congestion has become a major problem in many countries. One of the main causes of traffic congestion is due to road merges. Vehicles tend to move slower when they reach the merging point. In this paper, an enhanced algorithm for traffic simulation based on the fluid-dynamic algorithm and kinematic wave theory is proposed. The enhanced algorithm is used to study traffic congestion at a road merge. This paper also describes the development of a dynamic traffic simulation tool which is used as a scenario planning and to forecast traffic congestion level in a certain time based on defined parameter values. The tool incorporates the enhanced algorithm as well as the two original algorithms. Output from the three above mentioned algorithms are measured in terms of traffic queue length, travel time and the total number of vehicles passing through the merging point. This paper also suggests an efficient way of reducing traffic congestion at a road merge by analyzing the traffic queue length and travel time. Keywords—Dynamic, fluid-dynamic, kinematic wave theory, simulation, traffic congestion. I. INTRODUCTION RAFFIC congestion can be characterized by the decrease in speed, the increase in travel time and the increase of vehicle’s queue on the road. In addition, traffic congestion happens when the road demand exceeds the road capacity. When congestion happens, increased in travel time, air pollution and fuel consumption occurs [1]-[2]. At the same time, drop in land value happens in areas which are prone to traffic jam [3]. Dynamic traffic simulation has become the research agenda for a growing community of researchers and industries in recent years [4]-[5]. The term dynamic as in dynamic traffic simulation in this paper refers to the ability to adjust parameter values (i.e. speed limit, vehicle type) while the simulation application is running. P. L. Wong is with the Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Computer Sciences, 11800 USM Penang, Malaysia (e-mail: wongpohlee@hotmail.com). Mohd. Azam Osman is with the Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Computer Sciences, 11800 USM Penang, Malaysia (e-mail: azam@cs.usm.my). A. Z. Talib is with the Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Computer Sciences, 11800 USM Penang, Malaysia (e-mail: azht@cs.usm.my). Ahmad Izani Md. Ismail is with the Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Mathematical Sciences, 11800 USM Penang, Malaysia (e-mail: izani@cs.usm.my). Traffic congestion normally happens when merging points are met [10]. A merging point is a situation where several lanes start to converge into fewer lanes. When this occurs, vehicles need to compete with other vehicles to keep to their respective lanes in order to reach a destination. Therefore, some vehicles need to reduce in speed to give way for other vehicles to make lane-changing which resulted in long traffic queues on the road. In our work, an enhanced algorithm is developed based on the two existing algorithms namely the fluid-dynamic algorithm [6]-[7] and the kinematic wave theory [8]-[9]. A road merge after the toll plaza at Penang Bridge is taken as a scenario for our study. Penang Bridge is a bridge which connects the island of Penang and the mainland of Peninsular Malaysia. This area often encounters traffic congestion especially during peak hours. In this paper, the proposed enhanced algorithm together with the two original algorithms is used to study the road merge at the bridge. A simulation tool is also developed for the study using standalone application which adopts object-oriented approach and JAVA as the main application programming interface (API). Based on the study using the tool, some suggestions on handling traffic congestion problem at a road merge are discussed. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: The next section describes a brief background and related work which consist of issues on traffic congestion, merges in traffic environment, merge bottlenecks and dynamic simulation approach. Section III presents the algorithms for traffic congestion which are the fluid dynamic algorithm and the kinematic wave theory. In section IV, a brief methodology which covers a discussion on the observation of traffic activity at a road merge on Penang Bridge and an enhanced algorithm based on fluid-dynamic algorithm and kinematic wave theory is discussed. Section V presents the system architecture of the dynamic traffic simulation tool. Section VI discusses the results based on the original algorithms and the enhanced algorithm. Section VII concludes the paper. II. BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK A. Issues on Traffic Congestion Generally, traffic congestion occurs when traffic demand is greater than the capacity of the road. Traffic congestion is Dynamic Traffic Simulation for Traffic Congestion Problem Using an Enhanced Algorithm Wong Poh Lee, Mohd. Azam Osman, Abdullah Zawawi Talib, and Ahmad Izani Md. Ismail T World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vol:2, No:9, 2008 625 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 2(9) 2008 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/9845 International Science Index, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vol:2, No:9, 2008 waset.org/Publication/9845