INTEGRATED ARTERIAL AND FREEWAY OPERATION CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR IVHS ADVANCED TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: PROJECT SUMMARY REPORT

This study focuses on traffic congestion, primarily that occurring on freeway corridors in metropolitan areas. Lack of coordination in the operation of various components of the system is often a major source of inefficiency, resulting in greater delays to motorists than what might be achievable with the existing physical infrastructure. Inefficiency owing to a lack of coordination may be the result of jurisdictional issues in terms of different entities having operational responsibility for different parts of the system. Typically, the respective control settings for the various subsystems in a freeway corridor are not designed to operate together in an integrated way. The consequences are particularly acute when incidents occur and where there is an attendant loss of capacity, accompanied by possible redistribution of flows; moreover, the control settings along likely diversion paths are not designed to react to accommodate the unfolding situation. The main objective of the study is to improve corridor network management by coordinating the various control elements in a freeway corridor, for both recurrent and nonrecurrent congestion situations.