Optimal Freeway Ramp Control without Origin-Destination Information

Lei Zhang () and David Levinson

No 200404, Working Papers from University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group

Abstract: This paper develops an analytical framework for ramp metering, under which various ramp control strategies can be viewed as ramifications of the same most-efficient control logic with different threshold values, control methods, and equity considerations. The most-efficient control logic only meters the entrance ramps nearest critical freeway mainline sections so as to eliminate freeway internal queues, which is derived from a new formulation of the optimal ramp control problem. Instead of assuming the availability of real-time origin-destination information, the new formulation takes advantages of the stability and predictability of off-ramp exit percentages. Those properties of the off-ramp exit percentages are supported by empirical data, and allow us to formulate the optimal ramp control problem as a linear program whose input variables are all directly measurable by detectors in real-time. The solution is also tested on a real-world freeway section in a microscopic traffic simulator for demonstration. Time-dependent origin/destination tables and off-ramp exit percentages are compared as two alternative ways to represent the true real-time demand patterns that are important to freeway ramp metering.

Keywords: Ramp metering; Freeway operations; OD table; Off-ramp exit percentage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published in Transportation Research part B Volume 38, Issue 10, December 2004, Pages 869-887.

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http://hdl.handle.net/11299/179904 First version, 2007 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Optimal freeway ramp control without origin-destination information (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nex:wpaper:optimalrampmetering

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