Imputation of Ramp Flow Data for Freeway Traffic Simulation

Abstract

The Tools for Operational Planning is a suite of tools that uses the link–node cell transmission model for macroscopic freeway traffic simulations for specifying operational strategies such as ramp metering and demand and incident management. Traffic flow and occupancy data from loop detectors are used for calibrating these models and specifying the inputs to the simulation. Flow data from ramps, however, are often found to be missing or incorrect. This paper elaborates an imputation procedure used to determine these ramp flows. This automated imputation procedure is based on an adaptive identification technique that attempts to minimize the error between the simulated and the measured densities. Simulation results using the imputed flow data indicate good conformation with loop detector measurements.