Empirical Proof of the Characteristics of the Queue Discharge Rate under Different Rainfall Conditions on an Active On-Ramp Bottleneck

Abstract

Empirical studies show that queue discharge rate is lower than pre-queue capacity in congestion. This is the the capacity drop phenomenon. All previous research about this event used data during clear weather conditions. This is the first time that empirical relationships between queue discharge rate and weather conditions have been studied. Previous studies show that the capacity drop is triggered by a critical density. Once this density is reached, a drop in the discharge rate is expected. We show that this critical density decreases during any weather condition. Previous studies also prove that the capacity drop is related to speed in congestion but that this might not be true during inclement weather. We show that queue discharge rate is correlated to the speed of congestion in any weather condition. We have also shown for the first time that the speed in congestion and the percentage of the capacity drop have a negative linear relationship.