Simulation study after traffic flow quality near toll-lane merging areas

Abstract

This paper deals with the traffic engineering aspects of the concept of toll-lanes without grade-separated access/egress lanes in metropolitan areas, where motorways - in general - are characterized by a lot of discontinuities. Toll-lanes are projected with the purpose to offer a congestion-free lane for drivers who are willing to pay for the use of such a facility and a high level of service. A simulation study has been performed in order to assess the impacts of advanced driver support systems on the longitudinal and lateral performance near a motorway segment with a toll-lane situated in the median lane and traffic merging to an off-ramp. The conducted simulations varied in the level of toll-lane use, merging proportion, and system penetration in the vehicle fleet. Results from the simulations show the performance benefits of centralized distance control (CDC) for vehicles entering the merging zone. Negative Impacts on throughput were found with the application of an intelligent speed adopter (ISA) with a speed limit of 90 km/h in the merging zone. The combination of the two systems showed small improvements compared with the do-nothing case. The findings show that the application of toll-lanes in combination with advanced driver support systems odd some additional longitudinal and lateral capacity to the main roadway.