A microscopic traffic simulator capable of modeling vehicle movements, traffic signal and detector operations at an intersection neighbourhood is necessary to study traffic data quality and traffic control strategy. The lack of such tool has motivated the development of an object-oriented, timestepping intersection-based simulation model named NUSSIM, currently running on a personal computer. In NUSSIM, the road, signal and detector infrastructures, and vehicles are modeled as objects. Rules are used to control the interactions between objects in the system. The intersection's road infrastructure is constructed by connecting discrete lane segments. Other than straight, left and right turn movements, vehicles also exhibit car following and gap seeking behaviour. Vehicles also response to the traffic signals, the later modeled by a signal controller and a set of signal heads. Detector operation is replicated to collect data for traffic control and research studies. The object class definitions and rules have been written 11 modules in the simulation code. The open-architecture in the program code helps to facilitate future expansion. The model is currently undergoing calibration at a typical local intersection. Future expansion of NUSIM to include vehicle movements between two adjacent intersections, and signal co-ordination will be made.

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