Estimating link travel time functions for heterogeneous traffic flows on freeways

• Published in: Journal of advanced transportation Vol. 50; no. 8; pp. 1683 - 1698
• Main Authors: Lu, Zhaoyang, Meng, Qiang, Gomes, Gabriel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Hindawi Limited 01.12.2016
• Subjects: BPR functions; cars and trucks; Computer simulation; Continuity (mathematics); freeways; heterogeneous traffic flow; Highways; microscopic traffic simulation; Parameter estimation; Time functions; Traffic delay; Traffic engineering; Traffic information; Traffic models; Traffic speed; Traffic volume; Transportation; Travel; Travel time; travel time function; Trucks; Vehicles
• ISSN: 0197-6729; 2042-3195
• DOI: 10.1002/atr.1423

Summary Oversized vehicles, such as trucks, significantly contribute to traffic delays on freeways. Heterogeneous traffic populations, that is, those consisting of multiple vehicles types, can exhibit more complicated travel behaviors in the operating speed and performance, depending on the traffic volume as well as the proportions of vehicle types. In order to estimate the component travel time functions for heterogeneous traffic flows on a freeway, this study develops a microscopic traffic‐simulation based four‐step method. A piecewise continuous function is proposed for each vehicle type and its parameters are estimated using the traffic data generated by a microscopic traffic simulation model. The illustrated experiments based on VISSIM model indicate that (i) in addition to traffic volume, traffic composition has significant influence on the travel time of vehicles and (ii) the respective estimations for travel time of heterogeneous flows could greatly improve their estimation accuracy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.