A simulation-based methodology to compare the performance of highway space inventory control and ramp metering control

The Highway Space Inventory Control System (HSICS) is a novel travel demand management concept in which all road users have to make reservations in advance to enter a highway. A modeling framework for such a system is proposed and illustrated for a hypothetical highway section. The proposed system allocates highway space temporally and spatially over time so as to optimize highway utilization by maximizing passenger miles traveled. In this paper, a methodology is developed to perform a quantitative comparison of the operational performance of HSICS and two isolated ramp metering techniques: the ALINEA algorithm and fixed pre-timed metering. The methodology involves a combination of microscopic traffic simulation and heuristic optimization. The proposed framework is generic and can be applied to compare other traffic control and demand management techniques. The proposed methodology is tested on a simulated highway section with traffic and geometric characteristics similar to a real congested site. Simulation results show that HSICS produces approximately 35 and 45% more passenger miles than ALINEA and fixed pre-timed metering, respectively. Vehicle miles traveled values for HSICS are comparable to those of ALINEA − 4% lower.