Modeling adaptive reversible lanes: A cellular automata approach

José L. Mateos,Carlos Gershenson,María Elena Lárraga,Dante Pérez-Méndez,Feng Chen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244326

Abstract

Dealing with traffic congestion is one of the most pressing challenges for cities. Transport authorities have implemented several strategies to reduce traffic jams with varying degrees of success. The use of reversible lanes is a common approach to improve traffic congestion during rush hours. A reversible lane can change its direction during a time interval to the more congested direction. This strategy can improve traffic congestion in specific scenarios. Most reversible lanes in urban roads are fixed in time and number; however, traffic patterns in cities are highly variable and unpredictable due to this phenomenon’s complex nature. Therefore, reversible lanes may not improve traffic flow under certain circumstances; moreover, they could worsen it because of traffic fluctuations. In this paper, we use cellular automata to model adaptive reversible lanes(aka dynamic reversible lanes). Adaptive reversible lanes can change their direction using real-time information to respond to traffic demand fluctuations. Using real traffic data, our model shows that adaptive reversible lanes can improve traffic flow up to 40% compared to conventional reversible lanes. Our results show that there are significant fluctuations in traffic flow even during rush hours, and thus cities would benefit from implementing adaptive reversible lanes.

Highlights

One of the major challenges in modern cities is to reduce traffic congestion [1, 2]
We propose a framework based on a cellular automata model to evaluate the potential benefits of an adaptive reversible lanes versus conventional, prescheduled reversible lanes
We show that adaptive reversible lanes are more efficient than conventional reversible lanes and we quantify the traffic flow fluctuations during rush hours

Summary

Introduction

One of the major challenges in modern cities is to reduce traffic congestion [1, 2]. Improving public transport and promoting the use of alternative vehicles such as bikes and scooters is critical to reducing the number of cars on the streets. In addition to the above mentioned, we can improve traffic congestion by implementing smart routing strategies, smart traffic lights, or changes in the infrastructure, such as reversible lanes. Far from conflicting, these strategies are complementary to improve traffic congestion. The reversible lane approach lies in this assumption: During rush hours, traffic flow in some twoway streets increases in one direction with respect to the other direction.

Methods

Results

Conclusion