Traffic Operations and Management

A Methodology for Developing a Traffic Surveillance Investment Program: An Application to Caltrans District 4

Dahlgren, Joy
2000

A method for determining how to develop the most effective traffic surveillance investment program given available resources is developed. The complicated decision structure for deciding where and when to install traffic surveillance and what type of surveillance to install is broken down into a series of steps: identifying information needs, determining which can be met by traffic surveillance, setting criteria for and evaluating the benefits of surveillance in various locations, identifying alternative surveillance methods and estimating their capabilities and costs, comparing the ratios...

Short Term Freeway Traffic Flow Prediction Using Genetically-Optimized Time-Delay-Based Neural Networks

Abdulhai, Baher
Porwal, Himanshu
Recker, Will
1999

Proper prediction of traffic flow parameters is an essential component of any proactive traffic control system and one of the pillars of advanced management of dynamic traffic networks. In this paper, we present a new short term traffic flow prediction system based on an advanced Time Delay Neural Network (TDNN) model, the structure of which is optimized using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). After presentation of the model's development, its performance is validated using both simulated and real traffic flow data obtained from the California Testbed in Orange County, California. The model...

Validation of Daganzo's Behavioral Theory of Mult-Lane Traffic Flow: Interim Report

Banks, James
2002

This report documents results of work completed at San Diego State University during the first year of a research project intended to validate a behavioral traffic-flow theory recently proposed by Daganzo (1,2). Work on this project completed at the University of California at Berkeley will be documented in a separate interim report. In the idealized form developed so far, Daganzo’s theory assumes two types of drivers, aggressive (rabbits) and timid (slugs), and two lane groups, shoulder lanes and passing lanes. In free flow, rabbits travel faster than slugs and the two groups are...

LANE-OPT Users Manual Version 1.0

Lotspeich, David
Hall, Randolph W.
1996

This document is the user manual for LANE-OPT. LANE-OPT is a linear program based software package that optimally assigns traffic to lanes on an automated highway. The program is based on a workload model, such that each lane/segment has a fixed capacity than can be allocated among: (1) straight traffic, (2) lane changes into the lane, (3) lane changes out from the lane, and (4) lane changes that pass through the lane. Each of these four movements produces a user-specified workload. The computer program models the highway as a multi-commodity flow network, where commodities represent...

Are the Objectives and Solutions of Dynamic User-Equilibrium Models Always Consistent?

Lin, Wei-Hua
Lo, Hong
1996

Traffic assignment models are an important component in analyzing the relationship between demand and supply in the transportation network for design, planning, and control purposes. The static traffic assignment model has been used in practice for several decades. With the latest development in the area of Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) and Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), there is an increasing demand for dynamic traffic assignment models to serve as a basis for studying various issues in these areas.Existing dynamic user-equilibrium traffic assignment (DUETA)...

Study of Freeway Traffic Near an Off-Ramp

Cassidy, Michael J.
Anani, Shadi B.
Haigwood, John M.
2000

A bottleneck with a diminished capacity is shown to have arisen on a freeway segment whenever queues from the segment's off-ramped spilled over and occupied its mandatory exit lane. It is also shown that longer exit queues from the over-saturate off-ramp were accompanied by lower discharge rates for non-exiting vehicles. The explanation appears to be rubber-necking on the part of the non-exiting drivers. Whenever the of-ramp queues were prevented from spilling over to the exit lane (by changing the logic of a nearby traffic signal), much higher flows were sustained on the freeway segment...

Models Of Commuters' Information Use And Route Choice: Initial Results Based On A Southern California Commuter Route Choice Survey

Abdel-aty, Mohamed A.
Vaughn, Kenneth M.
Kitamura, Ryuichi
Jovanis, Paul P.
Mannering, Fred L.
1993

This paper presents a statistical analysis of commuters' route choice behavior and the influence of traffic information. The analysis is based on a 1992 computer-aided telephone interview survey of Los Angeles area morning commuters. The results underscore the important relationship between the use of traffic information and the propensity to change routes. In addition, important relationships are uncovered relating the influence that commuters' socioeconomic characteristics and the level of traffic congestion they face have on traffic information use and route- change frequency. The...

Intermodal Transportation Operation System ( ITOS ) For The State Of California

Hall, Randolph
Parekh, Chethan
Thakker, Viral
1998

Intermodal transportation entails the coordinated movement of different types of transportation (rail, truck, automobile, etc.) to serve the needs of travelers and shippers. The purpose of this report is to provide a vision for systems to coordinate intermodal operations in California in the future, and also to document the types of systems that are being used today in a range of transportation modes. An intermodal system could, conceivably, establish a center (or centers) that is responsible for the joint operation of multiple modes of transportation. This is not our preferred vision....

Trav Info Evaluation ( Technology Element ) Traveler Information Center ( TIC ) Study: Operator Interface Analysis - Phase III

Miller, Mark
Loukakos, Dimitri
1998

TravInfo is a Field Operational Test of advanced traveler information systems for the San Francisco Bay Area, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The project involves a public/private partnership which seeks to compile, integrate and broadly disseminate timely and accurate multi-modal traveler information through commercial products and services. The public sector component centers on the Traveler Information Center (TIC), which collects and integrates both static and dynamic traveler information. The TIC began operations in September 1996 and will operate as an FOT...

Using Technology to Improve Transportation Services

Garrison, William L.
1988

Today's transportation systems are well deployed in the developed nations, and they and their supporting activities are technologically and institutionally mature. This situation is exceptional in the perspective of the last 200 years of transportation development, during which new systems were innovated and wave after wave of construction undertaken.An examination of the ways technologies were shaped and adopted in the past reveals that today's view of technology-based opportunities is also exceptional. Consistent with system maturity, the search for improvements is focused on marginal...