A Dynamic Competition Control Strategy for Freeway Merging Region Balancing Individual Behaviour and Traffic Efficiency

An integrated control strategy is considered in this paper with the aim of solving congestion in freeway merging regions during peak hours. Merging regions discussed in this paper include the mainline and on-ramp. Traditional research mainly focuses on the efficiency of traffic, ignoring the experience of on-ramp drivers and passengers. Accordingly, a dynamic competition control strategy is proposed to balance individual behaviour and traffic efficiency. First, the concept of the congestion index is introduced, which is expressed by the queue length and the speed parameter of the merging region. The congestion index is used to balance the priorities of the vehicles from the mainline and on-ramp into the merging region in order to avoid poor individual behaviour of on-ramp drivers due to the long-time waiting. Additionally, a nonlinear optimal control approach integrating variable speed limits control and ramp metering is proposed to minimize the total time spent and the maximum traffic flow. The integrated control approach proposed in this paper is tested by simulation which is calibrated using field data. The results indicate that the integrated control approach can effectively shorten the total delay and enhance the traffic service level.