The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic Flow

On-ramps are considered to be one of the common traffic bottlenecks. In order to improve the operation efficiency of on-ramps, scholars worldwide have proposed various vehicle merging strategies. In this study, we designed different rules to express three collaborative strategies and studied their i...

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Main Authors: Xue-Cheng Shang, Feng Liu, Xin-Gang Li, Davy Janssens, Geert Wets
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023-01-01
Series:Journal of Advanced Transportation
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/1375867
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author Xue-Cheng Shang
Feng Liu
Xin-Gang Li
Davy Janssens
Geert Wets
author_facet Xue-Cheng Shang
Feng Liu
Xin-Gang Li
Davy Janssens
Geert Wets
author_sort Xue-Cheng Shang
collection DOAJ
description On-ramps are considered to be one of the common traffic bottlenecks. In order to improve the operation efficiency of on-ramps, scholars worldwide have proposed various vehicle merging strategies. In this study, we designed different rules to express three collaborative strategies and studied their impact on on-ramp systems. Cellular automata models were used to simulate the systems under different situations, and the average speed and traffic flow rate of both the main roads and ramps were analyzed. The results show that (1) all the three merging strategies give excessive “priority” to the merging vehicle, leading to a severe reduction in the traffic performance of the main road; (2) nevertheless, these strategies have different effects on the entire system with a one-lane or two-lane main road. Due to the lane-changing behavior, the system with a two-lane main road has more advantages than that featured with a one-lane road, making the former system performing better than the latter under the same strategies; (3) the vehicles on the ramp and main road affect each other, and as the vehicle entering probabilities become large, the traffic flow rate on the main road decreases whereas that on the ramp increases. However, the effect is not unlimited, the flow rate on both roads finally reaches a stable level (forming a “platform”); and (4) large values of the merging safety distance parameter decrease the flow rate of the entire system. All the previous results provide a deep understanding of the impact of the three merging strategies on traffic flow, contributing to the design of on-ramp systems that have better operation efficiency and low levels of congestion.
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spelling doaj-art-4dc78d90c0fb48b7a8c4efd343d6b3292025-08-20T02:38:45ZengWileyJournal of Advanced Transportation2042-31952023-01-01202310.1155/2023/1375867The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic FlowXue-Cheng Shang0Feng Liu1Xin-Gang Li2Davy Janssens3Geert Wets4Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Big Data Application Technologies for Comprehensive TransportTransportation Research Institute (IMOB)Key Laboratory of Transport Industry of Big Data Application Technologies for Comprehensive TransportTransportation Research Institute (IMOB)Transportation Research Institute (IMOB)On-ramps are considered to be one of the common traffic bottlenecks. In order to improve the operation efficiency of on-ramps, scholars worldwide have proposed various vehicle merging strategies. In this study, we designed different rules to express three collaborative strategies and studied their impact on on-ramp systems. Cellular automata models were used to simulate the systems under different situations, and the average speed and traffic flow rate of both the main roads and ramps were analyzed. The results show that (1) all the three merging strategies give excessive “priority” to the merging vehicle, leading to a severe reduction in the traffic performance of the main road; (2) nevertheless, these strategies have different effects on the entire system with a one-lane or two-lane main road. Due to the lane-changing behavior, the system with a two-lane main road has more advantages than that featured with a one-lane road, making the former system performing better than the latter under the same strategies; (3) the vehicles on the ramp and main road affect each other, and as the vehicle entering probabilities become large, the traffic flow rate on the main road decreases whereas that on the ramp increases. However, the effect is not unlimited, the flow rate on both roads finally reaches a stable level (forming a “platform”); and (4) large values of the merging safety distance parameter decrease the flow rate of the entire system. All the previous results provide a deep understanding of the impact of the three merging strategies on traffic flow, contributing to the design of on-ramp systems that have better operation efficiency and low levels of congestion.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/1375867
spellingShingle Xue-Cheng Shang
Feng Liu
Xin-Gang Li
Davy Janssens
Geert Wets
The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic Flow
Journal of Advanced Transportation
title The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic Flow
title_full The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic Flow
title_fullStr The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic Flow
title_full_unstemmed The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic Flow
title_short The Impact of Three Specific Collaborative Merging Strategies on Traffic Flow
title_sort impact of three specific collaborative merging strategies on traffic flow
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/1375867
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