A Planning Tool for Active Traffic Management Combining Microsimulation and Dynamic Traffic Assignment (FHWA 0-6859-1)
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2018-09-01
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Edition:Technical Report, 9/1/14-4/30/17
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Abstract:Active traffic management (ATM) strategies have been considered as a tool for congestion mitigation in the last few decades. They rely on real-time traffic observations to regulate the flow of traffic. This research focuses on developing tools for evaluating the effectiveness of ATM strategies for freeway corridors. The research efforts can be categorized into two parts. The first part performs a detailed microsimulation analysis for four ATM strategies commenting on their effectiveness under cases of recurring and non-recurring congestion and develops a hybrid microsimulation-DTA (dynamic traffic assignment) model to capture the combined microscopic and network-level impacts of an ATM strategy. The second part develops spreadsheet tools which are useful to predict effectiveness of an ATM strategy under different levels of data availability. Ramp metering, variable speed limits, and hard shoulder running are found effective on the Williamson County test network, whereas dynamic ramp control and freeway arterial coordinated operations do not lead to any significant improvement. The authors also find that ATM strategies can improve the performance over a corridor while simultaneously reducing the performance of frontage roads due to spillover effects. The authors' findings also indicate that a hybrid microsimulation-DTA model is useful for an accurate analysis. However, based on the network characteristics, changes in route choice patterns may/may not be significant. The regression models used in the spreadsheet tool in the second part provide a good fit to the simulation results and thus can be used as an initial tool for testing effectiveness of ATM strategies during planning stage.
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