Collaborative Merging Behaviors and Their Impacts on Freeway Ramp Operations Under Connected Vehicle Environment

Under connected vehicle environment, vehicles are able to communicate and exchange detailed information such as speed, acceleration, and position in real time. Such information is important for improving traffic safety. In the meantime, it allows vehicles to collaborate with each other, which may significantly improve traffic operations particularly at intersections and freeway ramps. To assess the potential benefits of collaborative driving behaviors enabled by connected vehicle technologies, this research proposes an optimization-based ramp control strategy and develops a simulation platform using VISSIM, MATLAB, and the Car2X module in VISSIM. In addition to the optimal control strategy, an empirical gradual speed limit control strategy is also proposed. These strategies are evaluated using the developed simulation platform in terms of average speed, average delay time, and throughput and are compared with a benchmark case with no control. The study results indicate that the proposed optimal control strategy can effectively coordinate all merging vehicles at freeway on-ramps and substantially improve safety and efficiency, especially when the freeway traffic is not oversaturated.

• Record URL:
  http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/173225.aspx
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/173225.aspx
• Authors:
  • Xie, Yuanchang
  • Zhang, Huixing
  • Gartner, Nathan
  • Arsava, Tugba
• Conference:
  • Standing Committee on Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Summer Meeting
  • Location: Portland Oregon, United States
  • Date: 2014-8-11 to 2014-8-13
• Publication Date: 2015-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 392-408
• Monograph Title: Celebrating 50 Years of Traffic Flow Theory: A Symposium. August 11-13, 2014, Portland, Oregon
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Circular
  • Issue Number: E-C197
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0097-8515

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Interchange ramps; Merging control; Merging traffic; Mobile communication systems; Optimization; Traffic simulation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01604710
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jul 15 2016 3:32PM