Evaluation of Freeway Lane Control for Incident Management
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 125, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper presents and discusses the results and implications of an empirical study on the impact of the lane control signals (LCS) on resulting traffic patterns in the case of freeway lane closures. Effectiveness of LCS designs is evaluated through simulation experiments. A traffic simulation laboratory developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MITSIMLab, is used for simulating traffic and the operation of the LCS. The network used for the empirical study is a part of the Central Artery/Tunnel project in Boston. The use of LCS involves a trade-off between smooth lane changing and capacity underutilization. This paper explores this trade-off through two case studies. It is found that the effectiveness of the LCS design depends on lane configurations and directional volumes. Two measures of effectiveness are analyzed: (1) Total network travel time; and O-D specific travel time. The findings will help the evaluation of Intelligent Transportation Systems deployment projects from both economic (using total travel time) and equity (using O-D specific travel times) perspectives.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Ahmed, K. ( 1998). “Modelling drivers' acceleration and lane changing behavior,” PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
2.
Ahmed, K., Ben-Akiva, M., Koutsopoulos, H., and Mishalani, R. ( 1996). “Models for freeway lane changing and gap acceptance behavior.” Transportation and traffic theory, J. Lesort, ed., Elsevier Science Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 501–515.
3.
Ben-Akiva, M., Koutsopoulos, H., Mishalani, R., and Yang, Q. (1997). “Simulation laboratory for evaluating dynamic traffic management systems.”J. Transp. Engrg., ASCE, 123(4), 283–289.
4.
Jha, M., Cuneo, D., and Chachich, A. (1997). “Interim evaluation and refinements of lane control signal strategies.” Rep. T12-0075, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
5.
Mahmassani, H., and Jayakrishnan, R. (1988). “Dynamic analysis of lane closure strategies.”J. Transp. Engrg., ASCE, 114(4), 476–496.
6.
Rathi, A., and Nemeth, Z. (1986). “FREESIM: A microscopic simulation model of freeway lane closures.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1091, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 21–24.
7.
Rouphail, N., and Tiwari, G. (1982). “Flow characteristics at freeway lane closures.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1035, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
8.
Wohlschlaeger, S., Ullman, G., and Dudek, C. (1995). “Motorist interpretation of yellow X and yellow diagonal arrow in freeway lane control signal array.” Transp. Res. Rec. 1495, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 9–16.
9.
Yang, Q., and Koutsopoulos, H. (1996). “A microscopic simulator for evaluations of dynamic traffic management systems.” Transp. Res.-C, 4(3), 113–129.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 125 • Issue 6 • November 1999
Pages: 495 - 501
History
Received: Dec 31, 1998
Published online: Nov 1, 1999
Published in print: Nov 1999
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.