TY - GEN
T1 - An Empirical Analysis of Freeway Traffic Breakdown Probability Based on Bivariate Weibull Distribution
AU - Chow, Andy H. F.
AU - Lu, Xiao-Yun
AU - Qiu, Tony Z.
PY - 2009/9
Y1 - 2009/9
N2 - From an operation viewpoint, traffic breakdown from free-flow was defined as when the average speed of traffic drops below a certain threshold. It is known that traffic breakdown is a stochastic phenomenon which can happen even when the traffic flow is below the capacity. This study investigates the probability of breakdown at freeway bottlenecks. A bivariate Weibull distribution is adopted to model the probability of breakdown as a function of the combination of mean speed and occupancy of the incoming traffic. A case study with data collected from a section of I-80W Freeway in West Berkeley, California is carried out to test the performance of the methodology. Empirical results are derived and their implications on designing traffic control strategies are discussed. The outcome of this study is useful for developing various control strategies including Variable Speed Limit (VSL) and ramp metering.
AB - From an operation viewpoint, traffic breakdown from free-flow was defined as when the average speed of traffic drops below a certain threshold. It is known that traffic breakdown is a stochastic phenomenon which can happen even when the traffic flow is below the capacity. This study investigates the probability of breakdown at freeway bottlenecks. A bivariate Weibull distribution is adopted to model the probability of breakdown as a function of the combination of mean speed and occupancy of the incoming traffic. A case study with data collected from a section of I-80W Freeway in West Berkeley, California is carried out to test the performance of the methodology. Empirical results are derived and their implications on designing traffic control strategies are discussed. The outcome of this study is useful for developing various control strategies including Variable Speed Limit (VSL) and ramp metering.
KW - Highway traffic control
KW - Ramp metering
KW - Speed limit control
KW - Traffic breakdown
KW - Weibull distribution
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UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-79960964666&origin=recordpage
U2 - 10.3182/20090902-3-US-2007.0046
DO - 10.3182/20090902-3-US-2007.0046
M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)
SN - 9783902661500
SP - 472
EP - 477
BT - Proceedings of the 12th IFAC Symposium on Transportation Systems
T2 - 12th IFAC Symposium on Transpotaton Systems, CTS'09
Y2 - 2 September 2009 through 4 September 2009
ER -
