Evaluation of Freeway Lane Control for Incident Management

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the results and implications of an empirical study on the impact of the lane control signals (LCS) on resulting traffic patterns in the case of freeway lane closures. Effectiveness of LCS designs is evaluated through simulation experiments. A traffic simulation laboratory developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MITSIMLab, is used for simulating traffic and the operation of the LCS. The network used for the empirical study is a part of the Central Artery/Tunnel project in Boston. The use of LCS involves a trade-off between smooth lane changing and capacity underutilization. This paper explores this trade-off through two case studies. It is found that the effectiveness of the LCS design depends on lane configurations and directional volumes. Two measures of effectiveness are analyzed: (1) Total network travel time; and O-D specific travel time. The findings will help the evaluation of Intelligent Transportation Systems deployment projects from both economic (using total travel time) and equity (using O-D specific travel times) perspectives.