Speed limit control at freeway bottlenecks is numerically studied on the basis of the Kerner-Klenov microscopic stochastic traffic flow model in the context of Kerner's three-phase traffic theory. It turns out that in some cases speed limit control, rather than preventing traffic breakdown, leads to induced congested pattern emergence at the bottleneck, whereas there is free flow at the bottleneck without speed limitation. In other cases, speed limit control can suppress moving jam emergence, which occurs without speed limitation. It is found that these effects are associated with the probabilistic character of traffic breakdown at a bottleneck as well as with complex spatiotemporal congested pattern features.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
KernerB. S.The Physics of Traffic.Springer, New York, 2004.
2.
MayD.Traffic Flow Fundamentals.Prentice Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, N.J., 1990.
3.
CremerM.Der Verkehrsfluss auf Schnellstrassen.Springer, Berlin, 1979.
4.
Highway Capacity Manual.TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2000.
5.
ArnoldE. D.Ramp Metering: A Review of the Literature.Virginia Transportation Research Council, Charlottesville, 1998.
6.
PapageorgiouM., and KotsialosA.Freeway Ramp Metering: An Overview. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 3, 2002, pp. 271–281.
7.
KernerB. S.Control of Spatiotemporal Congested Patterns at Highway Bottlenecks. Physica A, Vol. 355, 2005, pp. 565–601.
8.
KernerB. S.On-Ramp Metering Based on Three-Phase Traffic Theory. Traffic Engineering and Control, Vol. 48, 2007, pp. 28–35; pp. 66–75; pp. 114–122.
9.
NagelK., WagnerP., and WoeslerR.Still Flowing: Approaches to Traffic Flow and Traffic Jam Modeling. Operations Research, Vol. 51, 2003, pp. 681–716.
10.
HelbingD.Traffic and Related Self-Driven Many-Particle Systems. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 73, 2001, pp. 1067–1141.
11.
LighthillM. J., and WhithamG. B.On Kinematic Waves. I: Flood Movement in Long Rivers. II: A Theory of Traffic Flow on Long Crowded Roads. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Vol. 229, 1955, pp. 281–345.
12.
RichardsP. I.Shockwaves on the Highway. Operations Research, Vol. 4, 1956, pp. 42–51.
13.
DaganzoC. F.The Cell-Transmission Model: A Dynamic Representation of Highway Traffic Consistent with the Hydrodynamic Theory. Transportation Research B, Vol. 28, 1993, pp. 269–287.
14.
HermanR., MontrollE. W., PottsR. B., and RotheryR. W.Traffic Dynamics: Analysis of Stability in Car Following. Operations Research, Vol. 7, 1959, pp. 86–106.
15.
GazisD. C., HermanR., and RotheryR. W.Nonlinear Follow-the-Leader Models of Traffic Flow. Operations Research, Vol. 9, 1961, pp. 545–567.
16.
NewellG. F.Non-Linear Effects in the Dynamics of Car-Following. Operations Research, Vol. 9, 1961, pp. 209–229.
17.
WhithamG. B.Exact Solutions for a Discrete System Arising in Traffic Flow. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Vol. 428, 1990, pp. 49–69.
18.
BandoM., HasebeK., NakayamaA., ShibataA., and SugiyamaY.Dynamical Model of Traffic Congestion and Numerical Simulations. Physical Review E, Vol. 51, 1995, pp. 1035–1042.
19.
PayneH. J.Models of Freeway Traffic and Control. In Mathematical Models of Public Systems (BekeyG. A., ed.), Vol. 1, Simulation Council, La Jolla, Calif., 1971, pp. 51–61.
20.
WiedemannR.Simulation des Verkehrsflusses.University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, 1974.
21.
NagelK., and SchreckenbergM.A Cellular Automaton Model for Freeway Traffic. Journal de Physique I, Vol. 2, 1992, pp. 2221–2229.
22.
KraußS., WagnerP., and GawronC.Metastable States in a Microscopic Model of Traffic Flow. Physical Review E, Vol. 55, 1997, pp. 5597–5602.
23.
TreiberM., HenneckeA., and HelbingD.Congested Traffic States in Empirical Observations and Microscopic Simulations. Physical Review E, Vol. 62, 2000, pp. 1805–1824.
24.
KernerB. S., and KonhäuserP.Structure and Parameters of Clusters in Traffic Flow. Physical Review E, Vol. 50, 1994, pp. 54–83.
25.
KernerB. S., and KlenovS. L.Deterministic Microscopic Three-Phase Traffic Flow Models. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, Vol. 39, 2006, pp. 1775–1809; 7605.
26.
KraußS.Microscopic Modelling of Traffic Flow: Investigation of Collision Free Vehicle Dynamics. PhD thesis. University of Cologne, Germany, 1998.
