Design and Evaluate Coordinated Ramp Metering Strategies for Utah Freeways

During the past few decades, ramp metering control has been widely implemented in many U.S. states, including Utah. Numerous studies and applications have demonstrated that ramp metering control is an effective strategy to reduce overall freeway congestion by managing the amount of traffic entering the freeway. Ramp metering controllers can be implemented as coordinated or uncoordinated systems. Currently, Utah freeway on-ramps are operated in an uncoordinated way. Despite improvements to the operational efficiency of mainline flows, uncoordinated ramp metering will inevitably create additional delays to the ramp flows. Therefore, this project aims to assist the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) in deploying coordinated ramp metering systems and evaluating the performance of deployed systems. First, the authors leverage a method to identify existing freeway bottlenecks using current UDOT datasets, including Performance Measure System (PeMs) and ClearGuide. Based on this, the authors select the site that may benefit from coordinated ramp metering from those determined locations. A VISSIM model is then developed for this selected corridor and the VISSIM model is calibrated based on collected traffic flow data. The authors apply the calibrated VISSIM model to conduct simulations to evaluate system performance under different freeway mainline congestion levels. Finally, the calibrated VISSIM model is leveraged to evaluate the coordinated ramp metering strategy of the bottleneck algorithm from both operational and safety aspects.

• Record URL:
  https://www.ugpti.org/resources/reports/details.php?id=1104
• Record URL:
  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RXBiRrRkitnPPgwA2hQJxVx9ApqEoIwU/view
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/65470
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Utah, Salt Lake City

  Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
  Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84112

  Mountain-Plains Consortium

  North Dakota State University
  Fargo, ND  United States  58108

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Utah Department of Transportation

  Salt Lake City, UT  United States 
• Authors:
  • Wang, Qinzheng
  • Yang, Xianfeng
• Publication Date: 2022-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 44p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bottlenecks; Coordination; Freeways; Ramp metering; Traffic simulation
• Identifier Terms: VISSIM (Computer model)
• Geographic Terms: Utah
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01864965
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: MPC-22-486, UT-22.23
• Contract Numbers: MPC-641
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Nov 23 2022 2:54PM