A cordon-based reservation system for urban traffic management

Abstract

This paper builds a novel framework for the cordon-based road reservation system to manage road traffic in urban areas, and the rules of reserving the right of way are established. Both the simulation experiment and the analytical modeling approaches offer evidence that the reservation system performs better than the basic system and some types of pricing systems. Considering two different types of vehicles (i.e., reserved and unreserved vehicles) and a general link cost function, we conduct three types of experiment simulations, including the basic system, the reservation system, and the pricing system. Although the severity of traffic congestion is mitigated inside the cordon both in the reservation and pricing systems, the reservation system shows the best network performance from the traffic indicators provided by the simulation software. In the analytical modeling approach, the Frank–Wolfe​ algorithm with a modified Bureau of Public Road function is used to analyze the road reservation scheme, and results agree with the expected effectiveness of the reservation both in the aspect of the total system travel time and the equilibrium of the traffic flow in the road network. Finally, practical issues about the application of the road reservation system are discussed.