NETWORK OPTIMISATION BY USING TRAFFIC CONTROL AS RAMP METERING

During morning peak hours highway A12 is highly congested. Traffic from surrounding towns is concentrated on highway A12 towards the city of Arnhem. In order to optimise the traffic flow on highway A12 and on the neighbouring secondary roads a network control system has been developed and tested in the microscopic simulation model VISSIM. Using a real time decision model the amount of traffic entering highway A12 is continuouslys and automatically increased or decreased using the existing traffic controls near the on-ramps. Simulation results show a 25% decrease of travel time and a reduction of total delay time of 200 hours (-16%).