Control Strategies for Dispersing Incident-Based Traffic Jams in Two-Way Grid Networks

Effective control strategies are required to disperse incident-based traffic jams in urban networks when dispersal cannot be achieved simply by removing the obstruction. This paper develops a selection of such control strategies and demonstrates their effectiveness in dispersing incident-based traffic jams in two-way rectangular grid networks. Using the spatial topology of traffic jam propagation, we apply the concept of vehicle movement ban, which is frequently adopted in real urban networks as a temporary traffic management measure. Four control strategies were developed, which are referred to as single-line control, multiline control, area control, and diamond control. We also explore a combination of these control strategies and evaluate the impact of these control strategies on the changes in traffic jam size and congestion delay. Finally, we simulate the processes of traffic jam formation and dissipation using the cell transmission model and demonstrate the performance of the proposed strategies. Simulation results show that the proposed strategies can indeed disperse incident-based traffic jams efficiently.