Highlights ► A cause of periodic bursts in freeway bottleneck discharge flow is unveiled. ► The mechanism entails the interactions of four known effects in freeway traffic. ► Metering on-ramps in unconventional ways can favorably influence the mechanism. ► Conventional metering is found to retard the beneficial mechanism.
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.
A capacity-increasing mechanism in freeway traffic
Transportation Research Part B: Methodological ; 46 , 9 ; 1260-1272
2012-06-17
13 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
A capacity-increasing mechanism in freeway traffic
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