Thursday, March 24, 2016
3 pm to 4 pm EST
NEB 100
Title: Control of Freeway Corridors: Objectives, Performance Measures, Strategies
Lecture will be recorded and link posted for those that cannot attend in-person.
Abstract
Integrated management of travel corridors comprising of freeways and adjacent arterial streets controlled by traffic signals is a promising approach for improving the transportation system. However, the implementation and effectiveness of corridor management strategies is limited because of the lack of information on traffic conditions on the highway facilities. Recently the availability of High-resolution (HR) data from fixed and mobile sources provides significant opportunities for assessing the performance of existing control and developing new control strategies. In this presentation, we first describe the collection and analysis of HR data from several real-world test sites and the calculation of performance measures. Next, we present the development and testing of control strategies for freeway and arterial control coordinated operation. Under recurrent congestion, the proposed controls change the signal settings to prevent the on-ramp demand from obstructing traffic along surface streets and triggering the “queue override” feature which reduces the effectiveness of the freeway on-ramp metering. For non recurrent congestion, the use of arterial(s) as reliever route(s) to the freeway travelers is often used as the control strategy whenever there is a capacity reducing incident on the freeway. We discuss the issues involved in the development and implementation of such strategies and propose ways for improved operations.
Biography
Dr. Skabardonis is an internationally recognized expert in traffic flow theory and models, traffic management and control systems, design, operation and analysis of transportation facilities, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), energy and environmental impacts of transportation. He is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Director of California PATH, a statewide ITS research center. He has worked extensively in the development and application of models and techniques for traffic control, performance analysis of highway facilities and applications of advanced technologies to transportation. He has published over 300 papers and technical reports, and served as the principal researcher for over 75 research projects.
Dr. Skabardonis is an emeritus member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Traffic Flow Theory Committee, and member of TRB Freeway Operations, Highway Capacity and Quality of Service Committees and several subcommittees. He serves on the editorial board of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Journal, and as a reviewer for several archival journals in transportation.