Simulation of Exclusive Truck Facilities on Urban Freeways
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 8
Abstract
This paper assesses the impact of exclusive truck facilities on urban freeway performance. A large-scale regional microscopic traffic simulation model is developed for morning and afternoon peak hours and is used to model two alternative truckway configurations in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), including a truck-only highway and a truck lane conversion on Highway 401. Demand inputs to the microsimulation model are generated by a regional transportation demand model that provides origin-destination (OD) matrices for light, medium, and heavy trucks and passenger cars. Plug-ins are developed to represent a truck-only lane in the simulation environment. The simulation model is successfully calibrated to reflect observed road counts and to produce realistic congestion patterns. The effect of infrastructure changes on travel distances, travel times, exclusive truck lane usage, and travel speeds is assessed. Microscopic simulation allows queuing formation/dissipation and bottlenecks to be represented and allows for separate analysis of truck and car performance. Addition of a 4-lane truck-only highway results in greater travel time improvements for trucks, and it sometimes results in shifting of traffic bottlenecks on Highway 401 to downstream locations. Conversion of a freeway lane on Highway 401 results in increased congestion for passenger cars, but improved travel speeds for trucks. Both scenarios show truck facility usage ranges from 100 to 800 trucks per hour per direction.
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Acknowledgments
The valuable inputs of the advisory board that participated in this study are duly acknowledged, including Jennifer Fox, Murray McLeod, Goran Nikolic, Bill Rhamey, Rob Tardif, and Imad Nassereddine. These individuals provided a breadth of experience and expertise that was crucial to the success of the project. Their participation on the advisory board does not necessarily signify support for the project from the organizations they represent.
Data have been provided to this project by the Data Management Group of the Urban Transportation Research Advancement Centre, Statistics Canada, Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, IntelliCan Transportation Systems, Highway 407 ETR, and IBI Group.
Production of this study has been made possible through a financial contribution from Infrastructure Canada. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent the views of the Government of Canada.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 8 • August 2011
Pages: 547 - 562
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 25, 2010
Accepted: Oct 14, 2010
Published online: Oct 19, 2010
Published in print: Aug 1, 2011
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