Continuum Approximation for Congestion Dynamics Along Freeway Corridors

Jorge A. Laval () and Ludovic Leclercq ()
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Jorge A. Laval: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
Ludovic Leclercq: Université de Lyon, ENTPE/INRETS, Laboratoire Ingénierie Circulation Transport, 69518 Lyon, France

Transportation Science, 2010, vol. 44, issue 1, 87-97

Abstract: In this paper, congestion dynamics along crowded freeway corridors are modeled as a conservation law with a source term that is continuous in space. The source term represents the net inflow from ramps, postulated here as a location-dependent function of the demand for entering and exiting the corridor. Demands are assumed to be time-independent, which is appropriate for understanding the onset of congestion. Numerical and analytical results reveal the existence of four well-defined regions in time-space, two of which are transient. The conditions for the existence of congestion both in the freeway and in the on-ramps are identified, as well as the set of on-ramps that are most likely to become active bottlenecks. The results in this paper help explain the stochastic nature of bottleneck activation, and can be applied to devise effective system-wide ramp metering strategies that would prevent excessively long on-ramp queues.

Keywords: continuum approximation; kinematic wave model; traffic dynamics; congestion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:44:y:2010:i:1:p:87-97

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