Mechanism of Early-Onset Breakdown at On-Ramp Bottlenecks on Shanghai, China, Expressways

The mechanism of early-onset breakdowns was studied at on-ramp bottlenecks on expressways in Shanghai, China. From four on-ramp breakdown events captured on video, key parameters were extracted: prequeue flow, queue-discharge flow, speed variation per minute, lane change (LC) times in the mainline lanes and the acceleration lane, LC types, and LC locations (longitudinal and lateral). A total of 1,583 LC samples were analyzed. The findings showed a great difference in LC patterns when breakdowns occurred earlier than normal (i.e., before the bottleneck reaches expected capacity). In the case of an early breakdown, most LCs were forced LCs that occurred near the downstream end of the bottleneck, which spread laterally rather quickly. In contrast, in normal breakdowns in the United States, LCs were mostly free LCs that occurred evenly along the bottleneck longitudinally but were concentrated in rightmost lanes laterally.

[1]  Michael J. Cassidy,et al.  Test of Theory of Driver Behavior on Homogeneous Freeways , 2004 .

[2]  R. Bertini,et al.  Empirical Study of Traffic Features at a Freeway Lane Drop , 2005 .

[3]  Amjad Dehman.  Breakdown Maturity Phenomenon at Wisconsin Freeway Bottlenecks , 2012 .

[4]  黒田 孝次,et al.  Highway Capacity Manual改訂の動向--テイラ-教授の講演より , 1984 .

[5]  Carlos F. Daganzo,et al.  A BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF MULTI-LANE TRAFFIC FLOW. PART I, LONG HOMOGENEOUS FREEWAY SECTIONS , 1999 .

[6]  Carlos F. Daganzo,et al.  A BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF MULTI-LANE TRAFFIC FLOW. PART II, MERGES AND THE ONSET OF CONGESTION , 1999 .

[7]  Y. Sugiyama,et al.  Traffic jams without bottlenecks—experimental evidence for the physical mechanism of the formation of a jam , 2008 .

[8]  Gábor Orosz,et al.  Exciting traffic jams: nonlinear phenomena behind traffic jam formation on highways. , 2009, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[9]  Peter Hidas,et al.  Modelling vehicle interactions in microscopic simulation of merging and weaving , 2005 .

[10]  Michael J. Cassidy,et al.  Increasing Capacity of an Isolated Merge by Metering its On-Ramp , 2004 .

[11]  Robert L. Bertini,et al.  Some observed queue discharge features at a freeway bottleneck , 2002 .

[12]  Steven A. Smith,et al.  Freeway data collection for studying vehicle interactions : technical report , 1985 .

[13]  M. Cassidy,et al.  Lane changing patterns of bane and benefit: Observations of an uphill expressway , 2011 .

[14]  Wei Shen,et al.  Numerical Investigation of Stop-and-Go Traffic Patterns Upstream of Freeway Lane Drop , 2009 .

[15]  D. Levinson,et al.  Some Properties of Flows at Freeway Bottlenecks , 2004 .

[16]  Boris S. Kerner,et al.  Introduction to Modern Traffic Flow Theory and Control: The Long Road to Three-Phase Traffic Theory , 2009 .

[17]  S. Wong,et al.  An analytical shock-fitting algorithm for LWR kinematic wave model embedded with linear speed–density relationship , 2002 .

[18]  Hani S. Mahmassani,et al.  Predicting Flow Breakdown Probability and Duration in Stochastic Network Models: Impact on Travel Time Reliability , 2011 .

[19]  H. Michael Zhang,et al.  Oscillatory Traffic Flow Patterns Induced by Queue Spillback in a Simple Road Network , 2008, Transp. Sci..

[20]  M. Cassidy,et al.  Some traffic features at freeway bottlenecks , 1999 .

[21]  H. M. Zhang,et al.  Investigation of Early-Onset Breakdown Phenomenon at Urban Expressway Bottlenecks in Shanghai, China , 2013 .

[22]  C. Daganzo,et al.  Possible explanations of phase transitions in highway traffic , 1999 .

[23]  L. Craig Davis,et al.  Introduction to Modern Traffic Flow Theory and Control: The Long Road to Three-Phase Traffic Theory , 2009 .

[24]  Jian Sun,et al.  Observations and Analysis of Multistep-Approach Lane Changes at Expressway Merge Bottlenecks in Shanghai, China , 2013 .