Checkpoint Congestion Mitigation via Tandem Service Booths: Capacity and Delay Analysis

Tandem booths can be used to increase service capacity and reduce vehicular delay at checkpoints on transportation arterials, where lateral space constraints prevent the addition of parallel booths. Yet the added capacity is not proportional to the number of tandem booths added, as a vehicle in service can block other vehicles in the same lane from entering or exiting. In this paper, checkpoints with tandem booths are modeled as serial queueing systems and analytical methods are applied to quantify the capacity increase. It is revealed that the addition of tandem booths is particularly beneficial when the service time variation is small. When the service time variation is large, inserting a buffer between adjacent tandem booths can provide further capacity increase, but too many buffer spaces are not necessary. Real-time adaptive control of buffer usage also has little use. The analysis of vehicular delays under different configurations is also conducted via simulation. The delay-reduction benefit from added tandem booths is in line with the capacity analysis. The results on average delay are useful in determining the number of booths required under different levels of service.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Gu, Weihua
  • Li, Yuwei
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
• Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; Photos; References;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 90th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Highway capacity; Level of service; Real time information; Security checkpoints; Simulation; Traffic congestion; Traffic delays
• Uncontrolled Terms: Congestion mitigation; Inspection/processing booths
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01334146
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 11-2597
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 25 2011 10:28AM