VISSIM microscopic simulation comparison for golfcart and private vehicles around school zone: case study of Florida

Pine Island Academy, present in Nocatee Community, Jacksonville, Florida, uses various modes of transport for picking up and dropping off children at school. The parents using private vehicles to pick up and drop off their kids tend to take a long time due to delays and congestion in their routes. Parents who use golf carts (GC) for this activity tend to take a short time to pick up and drop off their kids. Due to this, it is necessary to analyze the use of GC as an alternative mode of transport for children pick up and drop off while reducing delay and congestion. This paper uses VISSIM microscopic simulation for analysis whereby the traffic flow in the morning for drop-off and the afternoon for pickup was observed at different GC traffic compositions regarding the relative delay, queue delay, and travel times. From the analysis, it was observed that the delays and travel times for private vehicles decrease as the GC composition increases in the network. These results show that a GC may be suitable for picking up and dropping off children at school. This factor is further supported by the ANOVA test of significance. Due to the results from this paper, recommendations to the transportation agencies responsible for school management include promoting GC usage, establishing designated GC lanes to ensure smooth traffic flow and minimal interaction with other vehicles, implementing a multi-modal approach that includes GCs, and emphasizing safety training and awareness for GC users.