Citation

Yang G, Tian Z, Xu H, Wang Z, Wang D. Transportmetrica A: Transp. Sci. 2018; 14(7): 543-561.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/23249935.2017.1387875

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper compares queue lengths at the two different on-ramp configurations: arterial-to-freeway ramp and freeway-to-freeway connector. Mesoscopic queue length simulation models are developed based on the input-output method. The input-output method aims to model the traffic flow arrival profile; then, the mesoscopic simulation model generates random traffic volume to simulate the stochasticity of traffic flow. The simulation models are validated using field-collected data. Simulation results indicated that the traffic flow arrival pattern has significant impacts on ramp queue length; vehicle platoons released from the upstream signalized intersection tend to exacerbate ramp queue length. At metered ramps, the required queue storage length is found to be 5.7% of demand when demand is less than 500 vehicles per hour per lane (vphpl), or 3.9% when demand is greater than 500 vehicles per hour per lane (vphpl). In comparison, at metered connectors, the percent numbers are 4.7 and 2.1%, respectively.

Language: en

Keywords

mesoscopic simulation; platoon arrival; queue length modeling; queue storage design; Ramp metering; random arrival