A Data-Driven Control Strategy for Urban Express Ramp

Expressway, as the main artery of urban traffic, realizes the smooth operation of the whole urban road network through reasonably balancing the traffic flow. However, due to the lack of reasonable and effective traffic control, the safety and congestion of expressways are becoming more and more serious. The development of intelligent network technology provides a new idea to solve the control problem of expressways. In this paper, a data-driven ramp control model of urban expressway is constructed. The interaction of traffic information is realized through intelligent network connection technology. The cooperative control strategy of VSL and RM is adopted. The mutual feedback of VSL and RM is realized based on the improved METANET model. The simulation experiment based on VISSIM secondary development shows that the collaborative control strategy under the intelligent network environment could make the vehicle travel time reduced by 20.59% and the speed difference between adjacent sections of the expressway mainline by 34.07%, which realized the coordinated control of the mainline and the on-ramp under the intelligent network environment, alleviate the expressway traffic congestion, reduce the traffic pressure, and improve the efficiency of the road network.