The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using active traffic management (ATM) strategies on freeways in terms of the driver's behavior and operational impacts. A few test beds were sele...The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using active traffic management (ATM) strategies on freeways in terms of the driver's behavior and operational impacts. A few test beds were selected to evaluate the impacts of ATM such as speed harmonization, shoulder utilization, and ramp metering. Test beds used in this study were at places where an ATM is either proposed or previously implemented, i.e., where data exists for condi- tions prior to and after the implementation of ATM. Data collected from the test beds were used in a simulation model to evaluate the impacts of each ATM strategy on speed, travel time, and crash rates. Simulation results indicated that the implementation of speed harmonization on US 90 showed a 14% reduction in crashes and a 2%-3% increase in freeway speed; the implementation of hard shoulders on US 90 showed a 39% increase in travel time, 22% increase in freeway capacity and 60% decrease in delays; and the implementation of ramp metering on US 59 between Bissonnet St. and Fondern road showed a decrease of 23 % in freeway travel time, a 14% increase in freeway speed and 11% decrease in accident rates.展开更多
Over the past few decades, urban freeway congestion has been highly recognized as a serious and worsening traffic problem in the world. To relieve freeway congestion, several active traffic and demand management (ATD...Over the past few decades, urban freeway congestion has been highly recognized as a serious and worsening traffic problem in the world. To relieve freeway congestion, several active traffic and demand management (ATDM) methods have been developed. Among them, variable speed limit (VSL) aims at regulating freeway mainline flow upstream to meet existing capacity and to harmonize vehicle speed. However, congestion may still be inevitable even with VSL implemented due to extremely high demand in actual practice. This study modified an existing VSL strategy by adding a new local constraint to suggest an achievable speed limit during the control period. As a queue is a product of the congestion phenomenon in freeway, the incentives of a queue build-up in the applied coordinated VSL control situation were analyzed. Considering a congestion occurrence (a queue build-up) characterized by a sudden and sharp speed drop, speed contours were utilized to demonstrate the congestion distribution over a whole freeway network in various sce- narios. Finally, congestion distributions found in both VSL control and non-VS control situations for various scenarios were investigated to explore the impact of the applied coordinated VSL control on the congestion distribution. An authentic stretch of V^hitemud Drive (I~~ID), an urban freeway corridor in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was employed to implement this modified coordinated VSL control strategy; and a calibrated micro-simu- lation VISSIM model (model functions) was applied as the substitute of the real-world traffic system to test the above mentioned performance. The exploration task in this study can lay the groundwork for future research on how to improve the presented VSL control strategy for achieving the congestion mitigation effect on freeway.展开更多
文摘The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using active traffic management (ATM) strategies on freeways in terms of the driver's behavior and operational impacts. A few test beds were selected to evaluate the impacts of ATM such as speed harmonization, shoulder utilization, and ramp metering. Test beds used in this study were at places where an ATM is either proposed or previously implemented, i.e., where data exists for condi- tions prior to and after the implementation of ATM. Data collected from the test beds were used in a simulation model to evaluate the impacts of each ATM strategy on speed, travel time, and crash rates. Simulation results indicated that the implementation of speed harmonization on US 90 showed a 14% reduction in crashes and a 2%-3% increase in freeway speed; the implementation of hard shoulders on US 90 showed a 39% increase in travel time, 22% increase in freeway capacity and 60% decrease in delays; and the implementation of ramp metering on US 59 between Bissonnet St. and Fondern road showed a decrease of 23 % in freeway travel time, a 14% increase in freeway speed and 11% decrease in accident rates.
基金supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council(NSERC) of Canada, City of Edmonton,and Transport Canadasupported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51208052,51308058)the Science and Technology Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province,China(No.2013K13-04-02)
文摘Over the past few decades, urban freeway congestion has been highly recognized as a serious and worsening traffic problem in the world. To relieve freeway congestion, several active traffic and demand management (ATDM) methods have been developed. Among them, variable speed limit (VSL) aims at regulating freeway mainline flow upstream to meet existing capacity and to harmonize vehicle speed. However, congestion may still be inevitable even with VSL implemented due to extremely high demand in actual practice. This study modified an existing VSL strategy by adding a new local constraint to suggest an achievable speed limit during the control period. As a queue is a product of the congestion phenomenon in freeway, the incentives of a queue build-up in the applied coordinated VSL control situation were analyzed. Considering a congestion occurrence (a queue build-up) characterized by a sudden and sharp speed drop, speed contours were utilized to demonstrate the congestion distribution over a whole freeway network in various sce- narios. Finally, congestion distributions found in both VSL control and non-VS control situations for various scenarios were investigated to explore the impact of the applied coordinated VSL control on the congestion distribution. An authentic stretch of V^hitemud Drive (I~~ID), an urban freeway corridor in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was employed to implement this modified coordinated VSL control strategy; and a calibrated micro-simu- lation VISSIM model (model functions) was applied as the substitute of the real-world traffic system to test the above mentioned performance. The exploration task in this study can lay the groundwork for future research on how to improve the presented VSL control strategy for achieving the congestion mitigation effect on freeway.