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Remember “Snowpocalypse”? About 10 years ago, Atlanta faced a surprising blizzard that brought the city to a standstill. What started as a normal workday turned into a city-wide parking lot as everyone tried to leave work simultaneously. This event inspired Roadrunner, an open-source application designed to simulate exactly this kind of scenario.

Roadrunner leverages the power of Mapbox for generating realistic driving routes and Redis for efficient data sharing across multiple server instances. Imagine simulating thousands of cars attempting to navigate Atlanta’s roads during a sudden snowstorm – that’s the kind of problem Roadrunner is built to tackle.

How Roadrunner Works

Roadrunner simulates vehicles driving between two points using real-world directions from Mapbox. It accurately reflects the expected speed limits and travel times, providing a realistic simulation of traffic flow.

Here’s a breakdown of the key components:

• Roadrunner server: This is the engine of the simulation, generating traffic data based on Mapbox routes and storing it efficiently using Redis. It also utilizes Java Topology Suite (JTS) and Proj4j to handle complex geospatial calculations and coordinate conversions, ensuring accurate positioning of vehicles as they move along their routes.
• Roadrunner viewer: This provides a visual representation of the simulation, allowing you to observe the traffic patterns and identify potential bottlenecks or problem areas.  It also allows you to “jump” into a vehicle to see what a driver would see.
• Roadrunner k8s orchestration: This component facilitates deployment and management of Roadrunner using Terraform, enabling scalability and efficient resource utilization.