Alex A. Kurzhanskiy

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2007-148

December 13, 2007

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2007/EECS-2007-148.pdf

The purpose of the Tools for Operational Planning (TOPl) project is to provide tools for quantative assessment of operational strategies designed to improve traffic conditions on congested freeways and surrounding arterials. The elements of such strategies are: * demand management, which focuses on reducing excessive demand; * incident management, which targets resources to alleviate accident hot spots; * traveler information, which potentially reduces traveler buffer time; * traffic control, which implements aggressive ramp metering at locations where significant reductions in congestion are likely to occur.

Macroscopic traffic models represent traffic as a compressible fluid in terms of flow, density and speed, as opposed to microscopic models which seek to reproduce the behavior of individual vehicle as its driver responds to its environment by changing its speed and lane. TOPl uses the well known macroscopic Cell Transmission Model (CTM).

CTMSIM is the interactive MATLAB based freeway traffic simulator of CTM. Simple and robust, CTMSIM has proved to be a handy tool for transportation researchers who can use it for evaluating ramp metering algorithms and for estimating the impact of different response times in the incident management. Its limitation is that it can only deal with a single freeway.

The Aurora object-oriented framework overcomes the limitations of the CTMSIM. Its basic objects, nodes and links, allow the user to construct heterogeneous road networks. Various event classes make it possible to generate simulation scenarios. The monitor objects can keep track of the state at selected nodes and links, coordinate control actions at nodes, or generate events at nodes or links when the monitored states reach certain thresholds.

Advisors: Pravin Varaiya

---

BibTeX citation:

@phdthesis{Kurzhanskiy:EECS-2007-148,
    Author= {Kurzhanskiy, Alex A.},
    Title= {Modeling and Software Tools for Freeway Operational Planning},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2007},
    Month= {Dec},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2007/EECS-2007-148.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2007-148},
    Abstract= {The purpose of the Tools for Operational Planning
(TOPl) project is to provide tools for quantative
assessment of operational strategies designed to
improve traffic conditions on congested freeways
and surrounding arterials. The elements of such
strategies are:
* demand management, which focuses on reducing
  excessive demand;
* incident management, which targets resources
  to alleviate accident hot spots;
* traveler information, which potentially reduces
  traveler buffer time;
* traffic control, which implements aggressive
  ramp metering at locations where significant
  reductions in congestion are likely to occur.

Macroscopic traffic models represent traffic as a
compressible fluid in terms of flow, density and
speed, as opposed to microscopic models which seek
to reproduce the behavior of individual vehicle as
its driver responds to its environment by changing
its speed and lane. TOPl uses the well known
macroscopic Cell Transmission Model (CTM).

CTMSIM is the interactive MATLAB based freeway
traffic simulator of CTM. Simple and robust, CTMSIM
has proved to be a handy tool for transportation
researchers who can use it for evaluating ramp
metering algorithms and for estimating the impact
of different response times in the incident
management. Its limitation is that it can only deal
with a single freeway.

The Aurora object-oriented framework overcomes the
limitations of the CTMSIM. Its basic objects, nodes
and links, allow the user to construct heterogeneous
road networks. Various event classes make it possible
to generate simulation scenarios. The monitor objects
can keep track of the state at selected nodes and
links, coordinate control actions at nodes, or
generate events at nodes or links when the monitored
states reach certain thresholds.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Kurzhanskiy, Alex A. 
%T Modeling and Software Tools for Freeway Operational Planning
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2007
%8 December 13
%@ UCB/EECS-2007-148
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2007/EECS-2007-148.html
%F Kurzhanskiy:EECS-2007-148