Route Guidance Strategy for Heterogeneous Traffic Flow in an Asymmetric Two-Route Scenario

Abstract

During serious emergencies or congestion, it is very important to alleviate road traffic congestion and improve the road capacity to reduce casualties. Most of the advanced route guidance strategies have been developed for homogeneous traffic flows, to reduce traffic congestion and enhance the road capacity in a symmetric multi-route scenario. Information guidance strategies have rarely been considered for heterogeneous traffic flows, including different types of vehicles with variable velocities and sizes in an asymmetric multi-route traffic system. In this study, we propose a weighted road occupancy feedback strategy (WROFS) for heterogeneous traffic flows including large vehicles and small vehicles, which considers the characteristics of different types of vehicles, such as, maximum speed, sizes and position, using real-time information feedback technology to guide traffic flow. Based on comparisons with the two previously proposed advanced strategies, the simulation results obtained in an asymmetric two-route traffic scenarios demonstrate that the proposed strategy improves the road capacity, balances traffic states on two routes, achieves better spatial distribution of traffic flow and enhances the stability of traffic flow about flux, average speed and the number of vehicles.