Enhancing Work Zone Capacity by a Cooperative Late Merge System Using Decentralized and Centralized Control Strategies
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper explores the efficiency of a novel merging system based on a cooperative late merge strategy (CLMS) to mitigate the capacity reduction in work zones due to lane closure. Cooperative late merge strategies in connected vehicles (CV) and connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) environments are formulated to enhance throughput by reducing gaps and increasing the synchronized speed in the work zone. We propose decentralized and centralized systems based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. The decentralized CLMS incorporates a modified lane-changing model to reflect the cooperative feature under the CV environment. The centralized CLMS is developed to further optimize the work zone throughput based on gap reduction and speed harmonization features enabled by CAV. The results prove that the decentralized CLMS outperforms other systems by increasing throughput as well as reducing delay and queue length. The centralized CLMS demonstrated substantial improvements compared to other systems. The simulation results prove that the decentralized CLMS improves capacity by 17% and the centralized CLMS by 45%, when compared to a traditional work zone system.
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Data Availability Statement
The complete datasets of the findings presented in this study, such as flow rate, delay, queue length, and speed are available upon reasonable request.
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Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148 • Issue 2 • February 2022
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 8, 2020
Accepted: Oct 5, 2021
Published online: Nov 24, 2021
Published in print: Feb 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Apr 24, 2022
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