Optimal coordination of networked motorway ramp meters

The adaptive ramp metering algorithms has been developed for years. The coordinated ramp metering algorithms based on the continuum traffic model has been proposed in many recent publications, the simulation results of which have shown the better performance than other existing algorithms. This paper briefly reviews the background and development of the continuum traffic model and presents an IDP (Iterative Dynamic Programming) method for the optimization of a continuum traffic model (METANET) to achieve a coordinated ramp metering strategy. In order to evaluate the proposed algorithms accurately and objectively, the proposed algorithms are implemented in a microscopic simulation scenario (Aimsun) for a 6.7km stretch of Auckland North Motorway, where the performance of the proposed algorithm is measured and compared to those under no ramp meter control.