A kinematic wave theory of capacity drop

Capacity drop at active bottlenecks is one of the most puzzling traffic phenomena, but a thorough understanding is practically important for designing variable speed limit and ramp metering strategies. In this study, we attempt to develop a simple model of capacity drop within the framework of kinematic wave theory based on the observation that capacity drop occurs when an upstream queue forms at an active bottleneck. In addition, we assume that the fundamental diagrams are continuous in steady states. This assumption is consistent with observations and can avoid unrealistic infinite characteristic wave speeds in discontinuous fundamental diagrams. A core component of the new model is an entropy condition defined by a discontinuous boundary flux function. For a lane-drop area, we demonstrate that the model is well-defined, and its Riemann problem can be uniquely solved. We theoretically discuss traffic stability with this model subject to perturbations in density, upstream demand, and downstream supply. We clarify that discontinuous flow-density relations, or so-called "discontinuous" fundamental diagrams, are caused by incomplete observations of traffic states. Theoretical results are consistent with observations in the literature and are verified by numerical simulations and empirical observations. We finally discuss potential applications and future studies.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

A Link-based Mixed Integer LP Approach for Adaptive Traffic Signal Control

This paper is concerned with adaptive signal control problems on a road network, using a link-based kinematic wave model (Han et al., 2012). Such a model employs the Lighthill-Whitham-Richards model with a triangular fundamental diagram. A variational type argument (Lax, 1957; Newell, 1993) is applied so that the system dynamics can be determined without knowledge of the traffic state in the interior of each link. A Riemann problem for the signalized junction is explicitly solved; and an optimization problem is formulated in continuous-time with the aid of binary variables. A time-discretization turns the optimization problem into a mixed integer linear program (MILP). Unlike the cell-based approaches (Daganzo, 1995; Lin and Wang, 2004; Lo, 1999b), the proposed framework does not require modeling or computation within a link, thus reducing the number of (binary) variables and computational effort. The proposed model is free of vehicle-holding problems, and captures important features of signalized networks such as physical queue, spill back, vehicle turning, time-varying flow patterns and dynamic signal timing plans. The MILP can be efficiently solved with standard optimization software.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, current version is accepted for presentation at the 92nd Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Boar

On the optimization of conservation law models at a junction with inflow and flow distribution controls

The paper proposes a general framework to analyze control problems for conservation law models on a network. Namely we consider a general class of junction distribution controls and inflow controls and we establish the compactness in $L^1$ of a class of flux-traces of solutions. We then derive the existence of solutions for two optimization problems: (I) the maximization of an integral functional depending on the flux-traces of solutions evaluated at points of the incoming and outgoing edges; (II) the minimization of the total variation of the optimal solutions of problem (I). Finally we provide an equivalent variational formulation of the min-max problem (II) and we discuss some numerical simulations for a junction with two incoming and two outgoing edges.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figure

Riemann problems with non--local point constraints and capacity drop

In the present note we discuss in details the Riemann problem for a one--dimensional hyperbolic conservation law subject to a point constraint. We investigate how the regularity of the constraint operator impacts the well--posedness of the problem, namely in the case, relevant for numerical applications, of a discretized exit capacity. We devote particular attention to the case in which the constraint is given by a non--local operator depending on the solution itself. We provide several explicit examples. We also give the detailed proof of some results announced in the paper [Andreainov, Donadello, Rosini, "Crowd dynamics and conservation laws with non--local point constraints and capacity drop", which is devoted to existence and stability for a more general class of Cauchy problems subject to Lipschitz continuous non--local point constraints.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1304.628

Discontinuous Galerkin finite element scheme for a conserved higher-order traffic flow model by exploring Riemann solvers

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