Abstract
In urban expressways, when an on-ramp and off-ramp pair are closely spaced, the operational condition of the downstream diverge area influences that of the adjacent upstream merge area because of the weaving movement and queuing. Although lane-changing management schemes have often been used in practice, the quantification effect of specific management schemes has not been studied in detail. In this paper, a new cellular automaton model that fits in an on-ramp and off-ramp pair area was established, in which three types of lane change behaviors and eight types of lane-changing management schemes are considered. Sensitivity analysis of the simulation results was conducted to validate the effectiveness of the lane-changing management schemes, from which the optimal schemes under various geometric and traffic conditions are recommended. Results show forcing the off-ramp vehicles to change lanes in advance by using lane markings results in higher operational efficiency in most cases.
Highlights
The urban expressway is the skeleton that connects the main parts of the city
In order to reduce the congestion at the onramp merge areas and off-ramp diverge areas, various management and control strategies were proposed, including ramp metering (RM) [2]–[4], variable speed limit (VSL) [5], [6], integrated RM and VSL [7], [8], high-occupancy/toll
This paper aims to analyze the effect of lane-changing management on operational efficiency at on-ramp and off-ramp pair areas
Summary
The urban expressway is the skeleton that connects the main parts of the city. It plays a highly important role in dealing with large amounts of traffic in the city [1]. S. Sun et al.: Modeling and Simulation of Lane-Changing Management Strategies at on-Ramp and off-Ramp Pair Areas lane-changing rules to match the driving behavior using the cellular automaton model. The queue-jump rules are incorporated into the car-following and lane changing logics in the model Hua, et al [45] simulated the traffic flow with the effect of adaptive cruise control (ACC) vehicles and on-ramps. Different lane-changing management strategies can be combined used according to the traffic pattern and geometric conditions It makes the operational condition more complex. This paper aims to analyze the effect of lane-changing management on operational efficiency at on-ramp and off-ramp pair areas.
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