Integration of urban and freeway network control by using a scenario coordination module

In the Netherlands, the common approach to road network traffic control is top-down control by applying so-called scenarios. However, when the number of scenarios are getting larger, operators are often confronted with a dazzling number of choices which can be troublesome that their selections will dramatically affect the throughput of the network. In this paper, we will present a Decision Support System to manage the scenario-based control from a bottom-up approach by using so-called scenario coordination module. The bottom-up approach based on a hierarchal system architecture introduces a set of agents called buildingblocks. A road network can be divided into several subnetworks and each subnetwork can be divided into several buildingblocks. The combination of traffic measures in buildingblocks can represent a scenario. Moreover, they can communicate with each other and try to resolve the conflicts by themselves. This approach has been applied in the operational traffic control system for the Dutch city of Amsterdam. It was developed at the Dutch traffic management company Trinité Automation B.V.