Combined Ramp-Metering and Variable Speed Limit System for Capacity Drop Control at Merge Bottlenecks
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper proposes a ramp metering and variable speed limit (RM-VSL) control strategy to prevent and recover from capacity drop at freeway merge bottlenecks. Using bounded acceleration kinematic wave theory, we propose a strategy designed to prevent disruptive lane-changing maneuvers at the merge that cause capacity drop. This strategy gives more flexibility to control the ramp queue length by transferring some congestion to the freeway while maximizing total system discharge rate. Simulation experiments showed that the proposed RM-VSL system outperforms both individual components in isolation for preventing or curtailing traffic breakdown. The proposed strategy can be implemented with current technology.
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Data Availability Statement
All data from figures and tables, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Georgia Department of Transportation (RP14-14).
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 17, 2019
Accepted: Oct 22, 2019
Published online: Mar 18, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 18, 2020
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