A stackelberg game approach to ramp metering and variable speed control

In this paper, the stackelberg game is applied to optimally coordinate ramp metering and speed control in order to relieve peak hour congestion on urban freeways. Ramp metering can increase flow and prevent a traffic breakdown by adjusting the metering rate. Speed control is to regulate and guide the traffic on the main freeway lanes to achieve stability of traffic flow. We formulate the ramp metering and variable speed control as a stackelberg game and ramp metering is regarded as the leader, variable speed control as the follower. Within this framework, we propose a stackelberg game model of ramp metering and variable speed control. At last, we use a simple network to illustrate our approach and the simulation results show that this approach is effective.