Study of macroscopic fundamental diagram on Shanghai urban expressway network in China

The macroscopic fundamental diagram（ MFD） is studied to obtain the aggregate behavior of traffic in cities. This paper investigates the existence and the characteristics of different types of daily MFD for the Shanghai urban expressway network. The existence of MFD in the Shanghai urban expressway network is proved based on two weeks＇ data.Moreover, the hysteresis phenomena is present in most days and the network exhibits different hysteresis loops under different traffic situations. The relationship between the hysteresis phenomena and the inhomogeneity of traffic distribution is verified. The MFDs in the years of 2009 and 2012 are compared. The hysteresis loop still exists in 2012, which further verifies the existence of the hysteresis phenomenon. The direct relationship between the length of the hysteresis loop（ ΔO） and the congestion is proved based on sufficient data. The width of the hysteresis loop, i. e., the drop in network flow（ ΔQ） has no relationship with the congestion, and it varies from day to day under different traffic situations.

Perimeter traffic control strategy based on macroscopic fundamental diagrams

A perimeter traffic signal control strategy is proposed based on the macroscopic fundamental diagram theory(MFD)to solve the signal control problem in oversaturated states.First,the MFD of a specific regional network can be derived using VSS IM simulation software.Secondly,the maximum number of cumulative vehicles that the network can accommodate is determined based on the MFD.Then,through monitoring the influx flow,the number of vehicles existing in and exiting from the network,a perimeter traffic control model is proposed to optimize the signal timing of the boundary intersections.Finally,a virtual network simulation model is established and three different kinds o f traffic demand are loaded into the network.Simulation results show that a fer the strategy implementation,the number o f vehicles accumulating in the network can be kept near the optimal value,while the number o f both entering and exiting vehicles increases significantly and the road network can be maintained at a large capacity.Simultaneously,the queue length at the approach of the border intersections is reasonably controlled and vehicles entering and exiting the network can maintain a more efficient and stable speed.The network performance indices such as the average traffic delay and average number of stops can be improved to a certain degree,thus verifying the effectiveness and feasibility of the perimeter control strategy.

Vehicle emissions calculation for urban roads based on the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram method and real-time traffic information

Vehicle emissions calculation methods mostly use ownership information or annual road monitoring data as the activity level to calculate air pollutant emissions,but it is hard to reflect either the emissions intensity under different conditions or the spatiotemporal characteristics in various sections based on such approaches.This paper presents a method based on the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram and real-time traffic data to calculate vehicle emissions,which could reflect the operation conditions and emission characteristics of vehicles.Following the‘Technical Guide for the Compiling of Road Vehicle Air Pollutant Emissions Inventories’,the emissions of three roads with different lane numbers and road grades in Beijing were estimated and verified using this method.Compared with monitoring data,the average deviations of the traffic flow on the Fifth Expressway,Jingfu National Highway,and Jingzhou Provincial Highway were?25.5%,?26.5%,and?13.4%,respectively,and the average deviations of nitrogen oxides emissions were?27.7%,?12.9%,and?12%,respectively.This method showed good application potentials to construct the emissions inventory applied to the block-scale model and analyze the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of motor vehicle emissions in urban areas.

An identification model of urban critical links with macroscopic fundamental diagram theory

How to identify the critical links of the urban road network for actual traffic management and intelligent trans- portation control is an urgent problem, especially in the con- gestion environment. Most previous methods focus on traf- fic static characteristics for traffic planning and design. How- ever, actual traffic management and intelligent control need to identify relevant sections by dynamic traffic information for solving the problems of variable transportation system. Therefore, a city-wide traffic model that consists of three re- lational algorithms, is proposed to identify significant links of the road network by using macroscopic fundamental diagram （MFD） as traffic dynamic characteristics. Firstly, weighted- traffic flow and density extraction algorithm is provided with simulation modeling and regression analysis methods, based on MFD theory. Secondly, critical links identification algo- rithm is designed on the first algorithm, under specified prin- ciples. Finally, threshold algorithm is developed by cluster analysis. In addition, the algorithms are analyzed and applied in the simulation experiment of the road network of the cen- tral district in Hefei city, China. The results show that the model has good maneuverability and improves the shortcom- ings of the threshold judged by human. It provides an ap- proach to identify critical links for actual traffic management and intelligent control, and also gives a new method for eval- uating the planning and design effect of the urban road net- work.

Bus frequency optimization in a large-scale multi-modal transportation system:integrating 3D-MFD and dynamic traffic assignment

A properly designed public transport system is expected to improve traffic efficiency.A high-frequency bus service would decrease the waiting time for passengers,but the interaction between buses and cars might result in more serious congestion.On the other hand,a low-frequency bus service would increase the waiting time for passengers and would not reduce the use of private cars.It is important to strike a balance between high and low frequencies in order to minimize the total delays for all road users.It is critical to formulate the impacts of bus frequency on congestion dynamics and mode choices.However,as far as the authors know,most proposed bus frequency optimization formulations are based on static demand and the Bureau of Public Roads function,and do not properly consider the congestion dynamics and their impacts on mode choices.To fill this gap,this paper proposes a bi-level optimization model.A three-dimensional Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram based modeling approach is developed to capture the bi-modal congestion dynamics.A variational inequality model for the user equilibrium in mode choices is presented and solved using a double projection algorithm.A surrogate model-based algorithm is used to solve the bi-level programming problem.