Balance Lane Use with VMS to Mitigate Motorway Traffic Congestion

This paper is focused on an application and evaluation of a lane use balancing measure with the variable message signs (VMS) installed on both sides of a carriageway in a bottleneck of a 3-lane section. This is achieved by providing messages such as “Please stay in left hand lane” displayed on the roadside VMS or “Please use left hand lane(s)” on the VMS in the median strip or “Please keep left after merge” on the entrance ramp to persuade drivers to use the left hand lanes as much as possible. It was found that use of the outer lane increased and consequently use of the median lane decreased by 3%, which resulted in slightly more balanced lane use across the carriageway. The measure can also possibly reduce platoon size or to prevent platoons from growing. As a result, traffic congestion that previously occurred at a relatively low breakdown flow less than 4,800 vph is not likely to happen with the VMS. It also reduces the probability of occurrence of traffic congestion at high flows. Compared to 4,789 vph without the VMS, the average breakdown flow increased to 5,079 vph with an increase of 290 vph (+6%), the effect being three times that with the roadside VMS only.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Intelligent Transportation Society of America.
• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Xing, Jian
  • Muramatsu, Eiji
  • Harayama, Tetsuro
• Conference:
  • 19th ITS World Congress
  • Location: Vienna , Austria
  • Date: 2012-10-22 to 2012-10-26
• Publication Date: 2012

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 12p
• Monograph Title: 19th ITS World Congress, Vienna, Austria, 22 to 26 October 2012

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Highway capacity; Highway traffic control; Lane distribution; Traffic congestion; Traffic flow; Traffic platooning; Variable message signs
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01501947
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 23 2013 7:53AM