Traffic Operations and Management

Control Strategies for Corridor Management

Amiri, Zahra
Lo, Yu-Chieh
Skabardonis, Alexander
Varaiya, Pravin
2016

Integrated management of travel corridors comprising of freeways and adjacent arterial streets can potentially improve the performance of the highway facilities. However, several research gaps exist in data collection and performance measurement, analysis tools and control strategies. In this project first we analyzed high resolution data consisting of time-stamped records of every event involving vehicles, together with the signal phase at real-world signalized intersections and developed procedures for estimating performance measures. Next, we assessed the performance of a new...

Traffic Predictive Control: Case Study and Evaluation

Coogan, Samuel
Dutreix, Maxence
2017

This project developed a quantile regression method for predicting future traffic flow at a signalized intersection by combining both historical and real-time data. The algorithm exploits nonlinear correlations in historical measurements and efficiently solves a quantile loss optimization problem using the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM). The resulting parameter vectors allow determining a probability distribution of upcoming traffic flow. These predictions establish an efficient, delay-minimizing control policy for the intersection. The approach is demonstrated on a...

City-wide traffic control: modeling impacts of cordon queues

Ni, Wei
Cassidy, Michael J
2018

Optimal cordon-metering rates are obtained using Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams in combination with flow conservation laws. A model-predictive control algorithm is also used so that time-varying metering rates are generated based on their forecasted impacts. Our scalable algorithm can do this for an arbitrary number of cordoned neighborhoods within a city. Unlike its predecessors, the proposed model accounts for the constraining effects that cordon queues impose on a neighborhood's circulating traffic. It does so at every time step by approximating a neighborhood's street space occupied...

Synergies of Combining Demand- and Supply-Side Measures to Manage Congested Streets

Itani, Ibrahim, MS
Cassidy, Michael J., PhD
Daganzo, Carlos F., PhD
2021

An agent-based, multichannel simulation of a downtown area reveals the impacts of both redistributing traffic demand with time-dependent congestion pricing, and supplying extra capacity by banning left turns. The downtown street network was idealized, and loosely resembles central Los Angeles. On the demand-side, prices were set based on time-ofday and distance traveled. On the supply side, left-turn maneuvers were prohibited at all intersections on the network. Although both traffic management measures reduced travel costs when used alone, the left-turn ban was much less effective than...

Research Synthesis for the California Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force

Grembek, Offer, PhD
Chen, Katherine
Taylor, Brian D., PhD
Hwang, Yu Hong
Fitch, Dillon, PhD
Anthoine, Sonia
Chen, Bingchu
Grover, Salvador
2020

This research synthesis consists of a set of white papers that jointly provide a review of research on the current practicefor setting speed limits and future opportunities to improve roadway safety. This synthesis was developed to inform thework of the Zero Traffic Fatalities Task Force, which was formed in 2019 by the California State Transportation Agencyin response to California Assembly Bill 2363 (Friedman). The statutory goal of the Task Force is to develop a structured,coordinated process for early engagement of all parties to develop policies to reduce traffic fatalities to zero....

Using Automated Vehicle (AV) Technology to Smooth Traffic Flow and Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Almatrudi, Sulaiman
Parvate, Kanaad
Rothchild, Daniel
Vijay, Upadhi
2022

Passenger and heavy-duty vehicles make up 36% of California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing emissions from vehicular travel is therefore paramount for any path towards carbon neutrality. Efforts to reduce GHGs by encouraging mode shift or increasing vehicle efficiency are, and will continue to be, a critical part of decarbonizing the transportation sector. Emerging technologies are creating an opportunity to reduce GHGs. Human driving behaviors in congested traffic have been shown to create stop-and-go waves. When waves form, cars periodically slow down (sometimes to a stop) and...

Influence of Capacity Constraints on Airline Fleet Mix

Hansen, Mark M.
Gosling, Geoffrey D.
Margulici, Jean-David
Wei, Wen-Bin
2001

This report documents the findings of research sponsored by the Los Angeles World Airports to examine the influence of airport capacity constraints on airline fleet mix and to explore the potential effects of policy options to influence airlines to use larger aircraft types and thereby accommodate growth in passenger or cargo demand without a corresponding increase in the number of aircraft operations. This issue is of growing importance at many major airports in the United States and indeed around the world, as a steadily increasing demand for air transportation has resulted in volumes of...

Some Observations Of Highway Traffic In Long Queues

Smilowitz, Karen
Daganzo, Carlos
Cassidy, Michael
Bertini, Robert
1998

The arrival times of vehicles traveling southbound along a two-lane, bi-directional highway were recorded at eight neighboring locations upstream of a bottleneck caused by an oversaturated traffic signal. Cumulative curves constructed from these observations describe completely and in great detail the evolution of the resulting long queues. These queues formed directly upstream of the signal when the signal's service rate fell below the southbound arrival rates, and never formed away from the bottleneck. The predictability of bottlenecks like the one studied here can be exploited to manage...

System Optimum Diversion of Congested Freeway Traffic

Laval, Jorge A.
Munoz, Juan Carlos
2002

We study the system optimum dynamic traffic assignment (SODTA) in a network consisting of a freeway and neighboring city streets. There is only one bottleneck in the freeway and every destination is somewhere downstream of the bottleneck. Vehicles can be diverted through off-ramps leading to alternative local street routes. We formulate the problem and determine a graphical solution procedure based on Newell's cumulative plots, which yields the optimal diverted flow over time. On-ramps can be conveniently incorporated in this procedure yielding SO metering rates. The following variants are...

High Accuracy Location Based Services CostBenefit Study: Final Report

Goodliss, Adam
Manasseh, Christian
Ekambaram, Venkatesan
Sengupta, Raja
Kanafani, Adib
Ramchandran, Kannan
2011

This report presents a benefit and cost study of a Cooperative High‐Accuracy LOcation (C‐HALO) service. A High Accuracy Location service should be ubiquitous and reliable as the GPS constellation. A survey of the literature on location services reveals a body of work on the benefits of a high accuracy location service. Focusing on road travel, benefits are estimated to be between $160-$320 billion dollars over slightly more than 20 years. The benefits arise from smoother traffic flow on the roads leading to reduced travel delays, and fewer accidents leading to reduced injuries and saved...