MATHEMATICAL EVALUATION OF TRAFFIC CONTROL ALTERNATIVES FOR RESTRICTED FACILITIES

As part of a continuing research study directed to alleviate traffic congestion in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, the Howard policy-iteration technique was applied off-line to different traffic control alternatives. Three data- acquisition stations were used inside the tunnel for control purposes. One was at the tunnel's bottleneck, and 2 were upstream of this location. The value of the traffic concentration, which was used as the control variable, at these 3 stations defined 1 out of 18 possible states of tunnel traffic flow. State transitions in the system were assumed to occur every 30 sec. Extensive data collected in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel was used to determine the state transition probabilities of the system under each alternative. The rewards associated with state transition were obtained by applying a model that considers actual flow at the bottleneck and average speed associated with the flow during each transition interval. Five different control alternatives were considered. One of the alternatives was no control; the remaining 4 were 2- to 4-min cycle lengths of a traffic signal located upstream of the tunnel entrance.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1975/533/533-008.pdf
• Summary URL:
  • https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=MATHEMATICAL+EVALUATION+OF+TRAFFIC+CONTROL+ALTERNATIVES+FOR+RESTRICTED+FACILITIES&author=E.+Gonzalez&author=R.+Loutzenheiser&author=E.+Carter&publication_year=1975
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/030902384X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Freeway Operations. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Gonzalez, E A
  • Loutzenheiser, R C
  • Carter, Everett C
• Conference:
  • 54th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board
  • Location: Washington District of Columbia
  • Date: 1975-1-13 to 1975-1-17
• Publication Date: 1975

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 97-109
• Monograph Title: Freeway Entry, Flow, and Control
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 533
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bottlenecks; Data collection; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Traffic congestion; Traffic control; Traffic flow; Traffic signal cycle; Traffic signal timing; Traffic speed; Vehicular tunnels
• Uncontrolled Terms: Models
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00099666
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 030902384X
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Nov 5 1975 12:00AM