Variable Speed Limit Control for Delay and Crash Reductions at Freeway Work Zone Area
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 143, Issue 12
Abstract
Improving operational efficiency and safety on freeway segments has long been recognized as a priority in traffic communities. This study presents a comprehensive variable speed limit (VSL) control model for reducing both travel delays and potential crash risks at freeway work zones. The proposed strategy offers the responsible agency a reliable way to determine reasonable speed limits over the control time horizon in response to traffic fluctuations. The control objective of the proposed system is to minimize total operational cost by using embedded functions to estimate total cost with total travel delay and potential crash rate on the targeted freeway segment. This study used a field site in China for its case study to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed VSL control system. Based on the experimental results, it was observed that the proposed control model shows promise in reducing average delay, number of stops, and average stopped delay on the studied freeway segment. In addition, simulation experiments for sensitivity analysis indicate that the proposed VSL control model is more effective when driver compliance rate exceeds a threshold of 60% and the user-defined benefit threshold ranges 10–20%.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M610528) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China.
References
Abdel-Aty, M., Cunningham, R., Gayah, V., and Hsia, L. (2009). “Dynamic variable speed limit strategies for real-time crash risk reduction on freeways.” Transp. Res. Rec., 2078, 108–116.
Carlson, R. C., Papamichail, I., and Papageorgiou, M. (2011). “Local feedback-based mainstream traffic flow control on motorways using variable speed limits.” IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst., 12(4), 1261–1276.
Carlson, R. C., Papamichail, I., Papageorgiou, M., and Messmer, A. (2010). “Optimal motorway traffic flow control involving variable speed limits and ramp metering.” Transp. Sci., 44(2), 238–253.
Ceder, A., and Livenh, M. (1982). “Relationship between road accident and hourly traffic flow—I and II.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 14(1), 19–34.
Chang, G.-L., Park, S. Y., and Paracha, J. (2011). “Intelligent transportation system field demonstration: Integration of variable speed limit control and travel time estimation for a recurrently congested highway.” Transp. Res. Rec., 2243, 55–66.
Hadiuzzaman, M., and Qiu, T. Z. (2013). “Cell transmission model based variable speed limit control for freeways.” Can. J. Civil Eng., 40(1), 46–56.
Hegyi, A., De Schutter, B., and Hellendoorn, J. (2005). “Optimal coordination of variable speed limits to suppress shock waves.” IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst., 6(1), 102–112.
Hegyi, A., and Hoogendoorn, S. P. (2010). “Dynamic speed limit control to resolve shock waves on freeways-field test results of the SPECIALIST algorithm.” Proc., 13th IEEE Conf. on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society, New York.
Hou, D., Sun, X., and He, Y. (2010). “Relationship between speed difference and crash rate on freeway.” Transp. Stand., 13, 70–72 (in Chinese).
Messmer, A., and Papageorgiou, M. (1990). “METANET: A macroscopic simulation program for motorway networks.” Traf. Eng. Cont., 31, 466–470.
MYSQL version 5.0 [Computer software]. Oracle Corporation, Redwood City, CA.
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2013). China Statistical Yearbook 2013, China Statistics Press, Beijing.
Papageorgiou, M., Kosmatopoulos, E., and Papamichail, I. (2008). “Effects of variable speed limits on motorway traffic flow.” Transp. Res. Rec., 2047, 37–48.
PARAMICS Modeller version 4.0 [Computer software]. Quadstone, Edinburgh, U.K.
Ren, F., Liu, X., and Rong, J. (2003). Transportation engineering, China Communication Press, Beijing (in Chinese).
Smulders, S. (1990). “Control of freeway traffic flow by variable speed signs.” Transp. Res. Part B, 24(2), 111–132.
Soriguera, F., Martinez-Josemaria, I., and Menendez, M. (2015). “Experimenting with dynamic speed limits on freeways.” Presented at 94th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, TRB Committee AHB20 Freeway Operations, Washington, DC.
Talebpour, A., Mahmassani, H., and Hamdar, S. (2013). “Speed harmonization: Evaluation of effectiveness under congested conditions.” Trans. Res. Rec., 2391, 69–79.
Transportation Research Board. (1998). “Managing speed: Review of current practice for setting and enforcing speed limits.”, Washington, DC.
VISSIM [Computer software]. PTV AG, London.
Weikl, S., Bogenberger, K., and Bertini, R. L. (2013). “Traffic management effects of variable speed limit system on a German autobahn: Empirical assessment before and after system implementation.” Transp. Res. Rec., 2380, 48–60.
Yang, X., and Lu, C. Y. (2014). “Development of optimal variable speed limit control system for freeway work zone operations.” Presented 93rd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, TRB Committee AHB55 Work Zone Traffic Control, Washington, DC.
Yang, X., Lu, C. Y., and Chang, G.-L. (2015). “Exploratory analysis of an optimal variable speed control system for a recurrently congested freeway bottleneck.” J. Adv. Transp., 49(2), 195–209.
Zhong, L., Sun, X., Chen, Y., He, Y., and Zhang, J. (2007a). “Research on the relationship between V/C and crash rate on freeway.” J. Beijing Univ. Technol., 33(1), 37–40 (in Chinese).
Zhong, L., Sun, X., Chen, Y., Zhang, J., and Zhang, G. (2007b). “The relationships between crash rates and average speed difference between cars and large vehicles on freeway.” J. Beijing Univ. Technol., 33(2), 185–188 (in Chinese).
Zhou, M., and Sisiopiku, V. (1997). “Relationship between volume-to-capacity ratios and accident rates.” Transp. Res. Rec., 1581, 47–52.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 143 • Issue 12 • December 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 4, 2016
Accepted: Jun 23, 2017
Published online: Oct 9, 2017
Published in print: Dec 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Mar 9, 2018
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.