Graphical Solution for Arterial Road Traffic Flow Model Considering Spillover

Abstract

This research proposes a graphical solution to arterial road dynamics simulation. An arterial road consists of channelized and upstream sections. Traffic flow is mixed in the upstream section (U-section) and operates without lateral interaction in the channelized section (C-section). Under over-saturated conditions, C-section spillover occurrence governs the traffic flow dynamics of the entire road. In order to capture the arterial road traffic flow dynamics, the proposed method takes advantage of the following components: 1) a decomposition mechanism that uniforms the analysis of each lane; 2) a red–green pair-based vehicle queue tracking component that describes traffic dynamics both temporally and spatially; and 3) a well-defined converted cumulative curve that is capable of generating a queue solution directly. The graphical method permits arbitrary traffic flow and signal settings input and can easily be automated, as demonstrated in the example.