Traffic Inflow Control Problem on Urban Freeway Network for Disease Prevention
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 147, Issue 9
Abstract
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disrupted our regular life. Many local authorities enforced a cordon sanitaire to contain the rapid spread of the disease. Travelers can only pass the cordon after the disease screening. This paper aims to propose a method to design a traffic inflow control scheme for onramp metering to maximize urban freeway network throughput with an endurable queuing delay constraint at all offramps around cordon sanitaire. A bilevel programming model is formulated where the lower level is transportation system equilibrium to predict link traffic flows. The upper level is onramp metering optimization that is nonlinear programming. A stochastic queuing model is used to represent the waiting phenomenon at each offramp where the disease testing is conducted. A heuristic algorithm is designed to solve the proposed bilevel programming model where the method of successive averages (MSA) is adopted for the lower-level model, and a genetic algorithm (GA) with elite strategy is adopted for the upper-level model. An experimental study is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and algorithm. The results show that these methods can find a good heuristic optimal solution. These methods are useful for freeway operators to determine the optimal onramp control for disease control and prevention. They are also beneficial to set up checkpoints for all kinds of risks such as drunk driving and criminal searching.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This research is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20201277) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2242021S20022).
References
Boyce, D., and Y.-F. Zhang. 1997. “Calibrating combined model of trip distribution, modal split, and traffic assignment.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1607 (1): 1–5. https://doi.org/10.3141/1607-01.
Boyce, D. E., Y.-F. Zhang, and M. R. Lupa. 1994. “Introducing ‘feedback’ into four-step travel forecasting procedure versus equilibrium solution of combined model.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1443: 65–74.
Gartner, N. H., C. J. Messer, and A. Rathi. 1999. Revised monograph on traffic flow theory. Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration.
JHU (John Hopkins University). 2020. “COVID-19 dashboard.” Accessed May 6, 2021. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html.
Li, Z.-C., H.-J. Huang, and H. Yang. 2020. “Fifty years of the bottleneck model: A bibliometric review and future research directions.” Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 139 (Sep): 311–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2020.06.009.
Lin, H. 2019. “An accessibility-oriented optimal control method for land-use development.” J. Urban Plann. Dev. 145 (4): 04019011. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000518.
Lin, H.-Z., and J. Wei. 2019. “Optimal transport network design for both traffic safety and risk equity considerations.” J. Cleaner Prod. 218 (May): 738–745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.070.
Liu, Z., Q. Meng, and S. Wang. 2013. “Speed-based toll design for cordon-based congestion pricing scheme.” Transp. Res. Part C Emerging Technol. 31 (Jun): 83–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2013.02.012.
Oppenheim, N. 1995. Urban travel demand modeling: From individual choices to general equilibrium. New York: Wiley.
Sheffi, Y. 1985. Urban transportation networks. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Shepherd, S., and A. Sumalee. 2004. “A genetic algorithm based approach to optimal toll level and location problems.” Networks Spatial Econ. 4 (2): 161–179. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:NETS.0000027771.13826.3a.
Sumalee, A. 2004. “Optimal road user charging cordon design: A heuristic optimization approach.” Comput.-Aided Civ. Infrastruct. Eng. 19 (5): 377–392. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8667.2004.00364.x.
Sumalee, A. 2007. “Multi-concentric optimal charging cordon design.” Transportmetrica 3 (1): 41–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/18128600708685667.
Vickrey, W. S. 1969. “Congestion theory and transport investment.” Am. Econ. Rev. 59 (2): 251–260.
Wang, Z., and C. Liu. 2014. “The minimum yellow timing for ramp meters.” Int. J. Transp. Sci. Technol. 3 (4): 365–377. https://doi.org/10.1260/2046-0430.3.4.365.
WHO (World Health Organization). 2020. “Coronavirus.” Accessed February 12, 2021. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_2.
Yang, H., and M. G. H. Bell. 1997. “Traffic restraint, road pricing and network equilibrium.” Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 31 (4): 303–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-2615(96)00030-6.
Yang, H., and W. H. K. Lam. 1996. “Optimal road tolls under conditions of queueing and congestion.” Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 30 (5): 319–332. https://doi.org/10.1016/0965-8564(96)00003-1.
Yang, H., and S. Yagar. 1994. “Traffic assignment and traffic control in general freeway-arterial corridor systems.” Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 28 (6): 463–486. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-2615(94)90015-9.
Yang, H., and S. Yagar. 1995. “Traffic assignment and signal control in saturated road networks.” Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 29 (2): 125–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/0965-8564(94)E0007-V.
Yang, H., S. Yagar, Y. Iida, and Y. Asakura. 1994. “An algorithm for the inflow control problem on urban freeway networks with user-optimal flows.” Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 28 (2): 123–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-2615(94)90021-3.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 2, 2020
Accepted: May 20, 2021
Published online: Jun 29, 2021
Published in print: Sep 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Nov 29, 2021
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.