Empirical studies have demonstrated that the discharge flow rate at a bottleneck is reduced following the onset of congestion. These flow reductions, also known as capacity drops, are typically measured by comparing the queue discharge flowrate to the maximum pre-queue discharge flow rate. This research demonstrates, through the use of the INTEGRATION microscopic traffic simulation software, that these empirically observed capacity drops can be simulated without enforcing a discontinuity in the steady-state car-following or fundamental diagram. Instead, these capacity drops may be captured by constraining and varying vehicle acceleration levels, which in turn produces the desired macroscopic behavior by introducing gaps between vehicles. The study demonstrates that the INTEGRATION software produces capacity drops at the same level of magnitude as empirically observed. The study then uses the INTEGRATION software to demonstrate the empirically observed stochastic capacity and demonstrates how it is impacted by the level of acceleration that drivers are willing to exert, the lane changing behavior, and the percentage of heavy vehicles in the traffic stream.
Modeling the capacity drop phenomenon at freeway bottlenecks using the INTEGRATION software
Transportation Letters ; 4 , 4 ; 227-242
2012-10-01
16 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Modeling the capacity drop phenomenon at freeway bottlenecks using the INTEGRATION software
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