Traffic flow velocity disturbance characteristics and control strategy at the bottleneck of expressway**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51468034), the Colleges and Universities Fundamental Scientific Research Expenses Project of Gansu Province, China (Grant No. 214148), the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province, China (Grant No. 1606RJZA017), and the Universities Scientific Research Project of Gansu

Abstract

In the three-phase traffic flow studies, the traffic flow characteristic at the bottleneck section is a hot spot in the academic field. The controversy about the characteristics of the synchronized flow at bottleneck is also the main contradiction between the three-phase traffic flow theory and the traditional traffic flow theory. Under the framework of three-phase traffic flow theory, this paper takes the on-ramp as an example to discuss the traffic flow characteristics at the bottleneck section. In particular, this paper mainly conducts the micro-analysis to the effect of lane change under the two lane conditions, as well as the effect of the on-ramp on the main line traffic flow. It is found that when the main road flow is low, the greater the on-ramp inflow rate, the higher the average speed of the whole road section. As the probability of vehicles entering from the on-ramp increases, the flow and the average speed of the main road are gradually stabilized, and then the on-ramp inflow vehicles no longer have a significant impact on the traffic flow. In addition, this paper focuses on the velocity disturbance generated at the on-ramp, and proposes the corresponding on-ramp control strategy based on it, and the simulation verified that the control strategy can reasonably control the traffic flow by the on-ramp, which can meet the control strategy requirements to some extent.