EFFICIENCY AND EQUITY PROPERTIES OF FREEWAY NETWORK-WIDE RAMP METERING WITH AMOC

Although equity is an important characteristic of ramp metering strategy, it has seldom been addressed in the literature. In the current paper, the Advanced Motorway Optimal Control (AMOC) strategy for optimal freeway network-wide ramp metering is applied to the ring-road of Amsterdam in order to examine and illustrate equity issues and interrelationships in ramp metering strategies. Several scenarios along with a thorough analysis, interpretation and suitable visualization of the obtained results provide a basis for the better understanding of some complex interrelationships of competing performance criteria. More precisely, the strategy's efficiency and equity properties as well as their trade-off are studied and their partially competitive behavior is discussed. The results demonstrate that: (1) the use of optimal ramp metering can significantly improve traffic conditions in freeway networks; (2) the highest efficiency is achieved if only the on-ramps closest to the bottleneck are metered, but this can create overly long queues and strongly disbenefits the corresponding users for the sake of the general efficiency; (3) there is a trade-off of efficiency versus equity which the AMOC strategy addresses implicitly via consideration of the available ramp storage space; and (4) the storage capacity provided by freeways should be used to the highest degree possible since it seriously improves both the efficiency and the equity properties of the optimal ramp metering strategy.

• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VGJ-4DCD87M-2/1/09895451bc9e5d82fab0caa2f278e8e4
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/0968090X
• Corporate Authors:

  Elsevier

  The Boulevard, Langford Lane
  Kidlington, Oxford  United Kingdom  OX5 1GB
• Authors:
  • Kotsialos, A
  • Papageorgiou, M
• Publication Date: 2004-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 401-420
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue Number: 6
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0968-090X
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0968090X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Beltways; Bottlenecks; Freeways; Highway capacity; Networks; On ramps; Optimization; Ramp metering; Strategic planning
• Geographic Terms: Amsterdam (Netherlands)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00986605
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 5 2005 12:00AM