Capacity of Connecting Area between Uninterrupted and Interrupted Traffic Flow

Capacity of connecting area between urban expressway off-ramp's terminal and street junction was studied in this paper. Firstly, characteristic of traffic flow in the connecting area were summarized on the basis of vehicle trajectory analysis. Then, based on gap acceptance theory, a linear model was built to analyze capacity of the connecting area, considering the factors such as the signal control of junction, weaving ratio, and vehicles' queuing characteristic at the entrance of junction. For verifying this model, one real example from Shanghai was studied. The results indicated that the key factors deciding capacity of connecting area include characteristic of upstream traffic flow, traffic management in the connecting area and signal control of downstream junction, etc.