FREEWAY SIMULATION AND CONTROL

A macroscopic freeway simulation model is developed to evaluate and compare various freeway control strategies. The resulting model, FRECON, is a properly discrete extension of the dynamic FREFLO model. The discretization enables the model to realistically simulate all traffic conditions, including bottlenecks and congestion. It is performed internally in the model and adapts to minimize simulation costs while maintaining accuracy. True point detectors and performance measures are available. The model is calibrated and validated on five days of data from the Santa Monica Freeway. Control Strategies are divided into three configurational groups: pretimed, local traffic responsive, and segment-wide traffic responsive. Simulation evaluations, without vehicle diversion or priority treatment, are performed for one pretimed strategy (Linear Programming) and two local strategies (Percent Occupancy and Demand-Capacity). By not responding to daily variations in the traffic demands, the quality of the pretimed strategy's performance is limited. The local view of freeway conditions used by the local traffic responsive strategies limits their ability to control the freeway. A preliminary analysis of segment-wide traffic responsive strategies is also made. (FHWA)

• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Berkeley

  Institute of Transportation Studies Library
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720

  California Department of Transportation

  1120 N Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95814

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Babcock IV, P S
  • May, A D
  • Auslander, D M
  • Tomizuka, M
• Publication Date: 1982-12

Media Info

• Pagination: 469 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Freeways; Measures of effectiveness; Traffic congestion; Traffic control; Traffic simulation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00376386
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: UCB-ITS-RR-82-13 Final Rpt.
• Contract Numbers: F80-T003
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 30 1983 12:00AM