On the relationship between lane flow ratio and travel time on the merging section of an urban freeway

Abstract

In recent years, measures against traffic congestion by dynamic traffic management have been studied, but the studies on dynamic control of lane use is limited because of the lack of appropriate data. In this paper, we quantify the relationship between lane use and travel time based on vehicle trajectory data collected in the section including the merging section from the ramp. Concretely, the lane utilization ratio of an inner lane and traffic state are aggregated by various time duration and a regression model quantifying the relationship between lane use and traffic state is developed. As a result of parameter estimations with the trajectory data on a freeway section including the lane change prohibited section, it is revealed that i) the travel time can be reduced by increasing the lane utilization ratio of an inner lane under specific traffic conditions, ii) the effects of traffic management vary according to the aggregate time duration, and iii) 60 seconds is generally appropriate as far as the investigation.