Ramp Metering for Congestion Relief

This paper will describe how ramp metering has been used in a number of urban areas with measurable success. The largest deployments in the United States (US) are found in the Los Angeles-Anaheim-Riverside, California and Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota urban areas. Studies have been completed in both regions that document the benefits of this type of freeway management application. However, these ramp metering systems were installed gradually over time. In Atlanta Georgia, freeway travelers experience some of the worst congestion in the US today. This congestion and the very long commute times in the region are the product of several factors. Arterial routes for cross region travel are completely inadequate for significant traffic diversion from the freeways; commute distances are on the average much greater in this region due to developmental sprawl, and there has been an overwhelming growth as the region has experienced exceptional economic well-being. In this case, congestion is a definite sign of a healthy economy. At the same time, The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) has been a leader in the use of Freeway Management Systems and other Intelligent Transportation Systems. The paper describes how Atlanta has one of the largest full coverage freeway management systems in the United States. Atlanta has embarked on an extremely ambitious ramp meter initiative to install approximately 100 new ramp meters on urban freeways during 2006 - 2007. Construction on the first phase of ramp meters is well underway. An additional 38 ramp meters are slated for installation beginning later this year with turn-on in 2008. This may be the largest ramp metering initiative in US history. Modeling based on current traffic in Atlanta and estimates of congestion mitigation using the Minnesota ramp metering study indicates benefits from improvements to peak hour travel speeds and reductions in mainline freeway crashes to be in the 10's of millions of dollars annually. This paper details the implementation strategy and describes the "before" modeling study that provides the estimates of benefits.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Waters, Marion G
• Conference:
  • ITE 2007 Annual Meeting and Exhibit
  • Location: Pittsburgh PA, United States
  • Date: 2007-8-5 to 2007-8-8
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps;
• Pagination: 9p
• Monograph Title: 2007 Annual Meeting and Exhibit Compendium of Technical Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Freeway management systems; Intelligent transportation systems; Peak hour traffic; Ramp metering; Traffic congestion
• Geographic Terms: Atlanta (Georgia)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01362824
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 16 2012 10:14AM