Specifications of Fundamental Diagrams for Dynamic Traffic Modeling
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 9
Abstract
This paper studies different specifications of fundamental diagrams for first-order dynamic traffic modeling. The fundamental diagram, which refers to the relationship between traffic flow and density at a given location, plays an important role in modeling the dynamics of traffic propagation. Many forms of fundamental diagrams have been proposed since the seminal work of Greenshields 80 years ago. Nevertheless, empirical validation of fundamental diagrams, in particular, for dynamic modeling purposes, is limited. The study is conducted with an extensive dataset collected from the U.K. M25 motorway. This paper highlights the difficulty in modeling congested traffic with single-valued fundamental diagrams and fine-grained loop detector data. Consequently, this paper first analyzes and discusses the effect of data granularity on model calibration and application. Following this, a set-valued fundamental diagram modeling approach with fine-grained data is also presented. This paper contributes to the development and validation of dynamic traffic simulation tools.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all of the anonymous referees for the constructive feedback. The authors would also like to acknowledge the U.K. Highways Agency for providing the MIDAS traffic data. The content of this paper does not reflect the official views or policies of the Highways Agency or other organization. This paper also does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation of the Highways Agency or other organization.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 9 • September 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 15, 2014
Accepted: Mar 4, 2015
Published online: May 4, 2015
Published in print: Sep 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Oct 4, 2015
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