Title: A Capacity-Increasing Mechanism in Freeway Traffic and On-ramp Metering Strategies to Affect It
Abstract: A reason is unveiled for the time-varying pattern in discharge flow that is commonly observed at freeway bottlenecks. We hypothesize that four known effects in freeway traffic can interact upstream of a bottleneck in ways that trigger periodic bursts in its discharge flow. Repeated observations of a 3-km freeway stretch support the hypothesis. Controlled experiments show that the capacity-increasing mechanism can be favorably modulated by metering the site’s on-ramps in an unconventional manner. The unconventional strategy repeatedly produced higher average discharge flows and shorter on-ramp queues than did a more traditional metering policy.
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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