A capacity-increasing mechanism in freeway traffic

Kwangho Kim and Michael J. Cassidy

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 2012, vol. 46, issue 9, 1260-1272

Abstract: A reason is unveiled for the time-varying pattern in discharge flow that is commonly observed at freeway bottlenecks. We hypothesize that four known effects in freeway traffic can interact upstream of a bottleneck in ways that trigger periodic bursts in its discharge flow. Repeated observations of a 3-km freeway stretch support the hypothesis. Controlled experiments show that the capacity-increasing mechanism can be favorably modulated by metering the site’s on-ramps in an unconventional manner. The unconventional strategy repeatedly produced higher average discharge flows and shorter on-ramp queues than did a more traditional metering policy.

Keywords: Freeway traffic flow; Freeway bottleneck capacity; Freeway on-ramp metering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261512000860
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transb:v:46:y:2012:i:9:p:1260-1272

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2012.06.002

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part B: Methodological is currently edited by Fred Mannering

More articles in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().