00714894

Component

http://onlinepubs.trb.org...trr/1995/1494/1494-002.pdf

https://scholar.google.co...oian&publication_year=1995

In this work, the merits of freeway mainline metering as a means of better managing freeway traffic congestion are explored. Freeway mainline metering involves controlling the amount of traffic entering a freeway segment to provide improved travel downstream of the control area. To date, mainline metering has not been applied to a typical urban freeway system, although the concept has been applied successfully to bridges and tunnels. Experiences at these bridges and tunnels indicate that in the presence of a bottleneck, regulating the number of vehicles through the bottleneck will result in improved freeway operations. This study investigates whether regulating mainline vehicle movements can also improve freeway operations without the presence of a bottleneck. Also addressed in this work is whether mainline metering can provide additional benefits over and above typical ramp metering. To evaluate the above hypotheses, the INTRAS simulation model was used to replicate freeway traffic operations. The mainline metering evaluation was based on a variety of mainline volume and on-ramp control conditions. The results indicate that mainline metering can improve freeway operations downstream of the mainline meter. Most importantly, this can be accomplished without increasing the overall delay for vehicles originating upstream of the metering location. In addition, vehicles accessing the freeway from metered on-ramps downstream of the mainline meter are no longer entering a congested freeway mainline, thus reducing overall travel time. These findings appear to indicate that mainline metering is an appropriate freeway management tool.

This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1494, Traffic Operations, Traffic Signal Systems, and Freeway Operations 1995. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved

01399825

English

p. 11-20

1995

Transportation Research Record

Figures (10) ; References (8) ; Tables (1)

Freeways; Highway traffic control; Mainline metering; Simulation; Traffic congestion; Traffic mitigation; Travel time

Mitigation

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control

TRIS, TRB

Dec 13 1995 12:00AM

• ANALYSIS OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL VARIABILITY OF FREE SPEED ALONG A FREEWAY SEGMENT
• ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS FOR FREEWAY INCIDENT DETECTION
• BUS-PREEMPTION UNDER ADAPTIVE SIGNAL CONTROL ENVIRONMENTS
• CALTRANS INTERSTATE 15 REVERSIBLE HIGH-OCCUPANCY LANES: 1994 STATUS
• COSTS AND BENEFITS OF VISION-BASED, WIDE-AREA DETECTION IN FREEWAY APPLICATIONS
• DESIGN OF INCIDENT DETECTION ALGORITHMS USING VEHICLE-TO-ROADSIDE COMMUNICATION SENSORS
• DEVELOPMENT OF A FREEWAY CONGESTION INDEX USING AN INSTRUMENTED VEHICLE
• DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED TRAFFIC SIGNAL CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS: MULTILEVEL DESIGN
• EVALUATION OF MINNESOTA I-394 HIGH-OCCUPANCY-VEHICLE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
• EXAMINING THE POTENTIAL OF USING RAMP METERING AS A COMPONENT OF AN ATMS
• INCIDENT MANAGEMENT VIA COURTESY PATROL: EVALUATION OF A PILOT PROGRAM IN COLORADO
• MODEL TO EVALUATE THE IMPACTS OF BUS PRIORITY ON SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS
• NEW METHOD FOR ESTIMATING FREEWAY INCIDENT CONGESTION
• PIONEER APPLICATION OF PASSER IV IN THE HOUSTON METRO-RCTSS PROJECT
• REALBAND: AN APPROACH FOR REAL-TIME COORDINATION OF TRAFFIC FLOWS ON NETWORKS
• REALTRAN: AN OFF-LINE EMULATOR FOR ESTIMATING THE EFFECTS OF SCOOT
• TECHNIQUES TO ASSESS DELAY AND QUEUE LENGTH CONSEQUENCES OF BUS PREEMPTION
• TESTING OF LIGHT RAIL SIGNAL CONTROL STRATEGIES BY COMBINING TRANSIT AND TRAFFIC SIMULATION MODELS
• UNIFORM AND VARIABLE BANDWIDTH ARTERIAL PROGRESSION SCHEMES
• VALIDATION OF SIMULATION SOFTWARE FOR MODELING LIGHT RAIL TRANSIT