Enhanced Transportation Flow Open-source Microscopic Model and related research tools.
New in 2025: ETFOMM joined TSIS-CORSIM for worldwide release through the McTrans Center at the University of Florida.
ETFOMM was developed as an open-source microscopic traffic simulation research platform under U.S. DOT Small Business Innovation Research support. The product family inherits decades of FHWA traffic simulation algorithms and flow theory while providing a more flexible environment for research, education, and advanced transportation operations analysis.
ETFOMM centers on the core simulation engine, ESE, and related tools for network editing, animation, data management, application programming, and connected-vehicle research. The platform is designed to support researchers and academic users who need access to simulation logic, trajectory data, custom algorithms, and integration interfaces.
The Enhanced Simulation Engine is the core microscopic traffic simulation engine. It supports freeway, surface-street, lightrail and tram operations, advanced network logic, and research-oriented access to simulation behavior and output. ESE 2.2 is relased by McTrans in 2025 .
ETEditor provides a graphical input editor for developing and maintaining ETFOMM simulation networks. It supports roadway geometry, elevation data, highway networks, surface-street networks, interchange configurations, roundabouts, lightrail, tram, multimodal intersection data, priority and preemption control, and simulation input files.
ETEditor also includes advanced network-editing capabilities. It can import roadway networks from OpenStreetMap and DTALite, represent interchanges as multiple-node intersection systems, model roundabouts as a specialized form of intersections, merge and combine separately developed ETFOMM networks into one consistent ETFOMM network.
ETAnimator supports three-dimensional traffic visualization and animation of simulation results, helping researchers understand vehicle movements, network behavior, and operational impacts.
ETAPI connects ETFOMM's simulation engine with user-developed applications through ETRunner and Windows Communication Foundation technologies. It supports distributed computing, multiple communcations protocols, and external algorithm integration.
Traffic simulation software contains many human-factor and operation-related rules. An open-source approach allows the research community to examine, validate, improve, and extend those rules instead of treating the model as a closed black box. ETFOMM is therefore positioned not only as software, but also as a research platform for advancing transportation modeling.
ETFOMM and related tools were supported by U.S. DOT SBIR projects on microscopic traffic simulation models and software, and by a Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development grant through the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation for ETEditor and ETAnimator development.