Design and evaluation of an Arterial-Friendly Local Ramp Metering System

To address the widespread concern of an on-ramp control’s negative impacts (e.g., ramp queue spillover) on a neighboring arterial’s traffic conditions, the research team, with the support of Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration's (MDOT SHA’s) staff/engineers, has recently developed an innovative Arterial-Friendly Ramp (AF-Ramp) metering system, which aims to maximize the total benefits of the freeway and arterial users with both an optimized ramp metering rate and a coordinated signal plan for intersections within the ramp-impact area. Different from current ramp-metering models in the literature and in practice, the proposed AF-Ramp system includes the target freeway segment, its on-ramp, and neighboring intersections in one integrated control environment, and converts them from competing for available roadway capacity to a coordinated mode that maximizes their total benefits. To ensure the AF-Ramp system’s effectiveness in addressing complex, local-specific traffic patterns, it is essential that a rigorous and extensive field evaluation be conducted with respect to the system’s key model parameters and embedded assumptions. The coordinated relationship between the system’s three primary models, from estimating the freeway’s remaining capacity for ramp flows to the optimization of ramp metering rate and intersection signal plans, can also be assessed with the field data.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $100000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348303

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Regional Transportation Equity Research Center

  Morgan State University
  Baltimore, MD  United States 

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Niehaus, Joseph

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Maryland, College Park

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  College Park, MD  United States  20742
• Principal Investigators:

  Chang, Gang-Len

• Start Date: 20230901
• Expected Completion Date: 20240901
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Ramp metering; Traffic queuing; Traffic signal control systems
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01893879
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Sustainable Mobility and Accessibility Regional Transportation Equity Research Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348303
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Sep 21 2023 2:59PM