CONTROL EMULATION METHOD FOR EVALUATING AND IMPROVING TRAFFIC-RESPONSIVE RAMP METERING STRATEGIES (ABRIDGMENT)

A method is developed for evaluating traffic-responsive ramp metering strategies and improving freeway performance in intelligent vehicle-highway systems operations. The method emulates real-time metering, as currently practiced in the United States and Canada, and traces the interactions between automatic rate-selection metering strategies and freeway performance through time. The method can facilitate traffic management by aiding in the design of new traffic-responsive ramp strategies, and in the evaluation of existing real-time control systems and selection of the best metering schemes. The method was tested successfully in emulating volume and occupancy thresholds, rate tables, and automatic rate-selection control strategies, and in assessing and selecting ramp strategies based on freeway performance measures (such as total volume and delay) on I-35W in Minneapolis.