Feliks Leybovich CE 351 White Paper interim Submittal Scope

In 2001, an independent study on ramp metering in the Twin Cities metro area was released by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The study began with data collection of the existing 430 ramp meters while they were turned on, followed by a period of data collection after the ramp meters were shut down, which spanned a period of approximately 12 weeks. The study focused on fully exploring the impacts of ramp metering on freeways, local roads, and on transit operations, while concurrently comparing Minnesota's ramp metering system and timing strategies with other regional systems across the country. To ensure that the work completed was reliable and accurate public committees were charged with providing policy oversight, technical guidance, and quality control for this study. Additionally, the consultant sought out individual traveler-oriented perspectives regarding ramp meters and ramp meter operations in order to gage the attitudes among area travelers that occurred while the meters were running, and, more importantly, whether the public s attitude changed after the meters were shut down. The importance of this major study was the staggering results that were discovered concerning the effectiveness of Ramp Metering. Cambridge Systematics showed Mn/DOT that without ramp metering there was a 9 percent reduction in freeway volume, a 22 percent increase in freeway travel times, a 22 percent increase in freeway travel times, and a 26 percent increase in crashes. These crashes were further broken down to a 14.6 percent increase in rear-end crashes, a 200 percent increase in side-swipe crashes, a 60 percent increase in "run off the road"

crashes, and an 8.6 percent increase in other types of crashes. Finally, the reliability of freeway travel time was found to decline by 91 percent without ramp meters; and by using market research data collected during the study generally most survey respondents believed that traffic conditions worsened once the ramp meters were shut off. In response to the newly acquired results the Mn/DOT launched a new ramp metering system that was more responsive in its timing and included features such as maximum wait periods on ramp meters. Another example of a new feature of ramp meter system was the introduction of a limitation on vehicles in order to prevent back up onto adjacent roadways. Finally, meters would only be turned on when congestion is problematic such as peak hours. By following a new and improved system, Minnesota/DOT improved their ability to increase the efficiency of their highway system, while simultaneously proving the effectiveness of ramp metering. NORTHERN SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY RAMP METERING STUDY 2008 A study was conducted and presented to the community boards of northern San Joaquin valley, located in California, regarding the feasibility of ramp meter technology implementation. The study, conducted by DKS Associates, focused on safety, freeway, queue, and truck impacts resulting from the implementation of over 40 new ramp meters within approximately the next 20 years. Ramp metering showed that safety increased when ramp metering was in place due to a number of reasons. Metering improves the safety by breaking up platoons entering the freeway. This reduces the turbulence in merge zones. As a result, accident rate reduction of approximately 20%-40% could be achieved. Finally, ramp metering also results in a reduction of non-recurring delay, such as accidents which only sometimes cause major delays, as oppose to

a recurring delay caused by peak hour traffic (see figure 1). ramp metering reduces delay by approximately 18%. Ramp metering affected Freeway speeds which typically improved by 5% (over 15% assuming throughput increase). There were observed shifts in delay on meters ranging from two
Figure 1- Ramp Metering Reduces Delay by Approximately 18%

to five minutes although this was

balance by increasing travel time reliability for cars and trucks that were traveling longer distances. Trucks benefit from the improved freeway speeds and travel time reliability since they are usually traveling longer distances and entering less often into the freeways. The overall ramp design was determined to take into account a few key characteristics such as cost, have sufficient capacity at metering point, and allow for an increase in acceleration over a sufficient length of the ramp. The projected cost of implementing a ramp metering system was estimated at approximately 11.5 million dollars for 43 ramp meters. This cost was found to be relatively small in comparison to the benefit of reduced accidents and an increase of freeway system reliability over a long period of time which can save up to 11 million dollars a year.1 Taking all these elements into consideration create a compelling case for the implementation of Ramp Meters in San Jose, California.

http://www.ite.org/meetcon/2007AM/Session_36_Marion%20Waters.pdf NaviGAtor system

Annotative References

1. http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/systemops/ramp_meter/RMDM.pdf Ramp Meter Design Manual PDF, Covers the design of metered ramps, ramp meter hardware, and signing and pavement markings. Produced in January 2000 by the California Department of Transportation. 2. http://www.dot.state.mn.us/rampmeter/rmstudy.html Minnesota Department of Transportation website. Has detailed information about the case study done in 2000 which analyzed the meter ramps in the twin cities of Minnesota. Additionally, this study includes general important information about Meter ramps in North America.
3. http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/3982-S.pdf

Implementation of Arlington Ramp Metering System: Assists in understanding the installation process including how difficult it actually is to install and run ramp meters. in addition, the webpage explains how cost of installation can effect implementation of the ramp meters. 4. http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~cassidy/TRBMETERINGfinalvers.pdf Freeway On-Ramp Metering, Delay Savings and the Diverge Bottleneck: Michael J. Cassidy University of California, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Institute of Transportation Studies
Changes in commuter travel behavior brought by metering, and possible effects of these changes, are discussed as well as a detailed analysis regarding whether or not one algorithm can be used in all freeways, as opposed to tailoring the ramp meter algorithm to individual freeways. 2003

5. http://www.geauxwider.com/metering_info/ and http://www.geauxwider.com/pdfs/ramp%20metering%20flyer.pdf Baton rouge, La. Ramp metering implementation information for the public on their website. Includes general facts about ramp metering and demonstrates how it is implemented by communicating effectively with the public through informational flyers and updated website info. 6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76QkOga3msM

Ramp Metering Traffic Simulation. A microsimulation model developed by Braidwood Associates to demonstrate freeway ramp metering. www.braidwoodassoc.com Excellent for presentation portion of the white paper assignment. 7. http://www.stancog.org/pdf/ramp-metering-hov-lane-study.pdf Ramp Metering Study Presentation. Developed a great summary for facts including costs, delay results charts, and safety impacts. 8. http://www.civil.uwaterloo.ca/bhellinga/publications/Publications/AAP2005%20Safety%20impacts%20of%20ramp%20metering.pdf Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA. Quantifying safety impacts report. The results of the study showed that ramp metering reduced crash potential by 5%-37% compared to freeways lacking ramp metering. Additionally, Driver responses to ramp metering and the consequent traffic flow changes were observed and studied 9. http://www.its.umn.edu/Research/ProjectDetail.html?id=2002018 David Levinson, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, Ramp Meter Delays, Freeway Congestion, and Driver Acceptance. This study recognizes that drivers prefer different things and attempts to objectify driver s preferences and positive perceptions for different waiting times on ramp meters. The investigator used two separate methodologies to test driver preferences, and was determined to see if both methodologies returned the same results. 10. http://www.ite.org/meetcon/2007AM/Session_36_Marion%20Waters.pdf 2007 Georgia Ramp Metering Analysis of providing a methodology to improve their ramp metering infrastructure (includes detailed explanation of existing infrastructure). Details new improvements including LED Signs in combination of the ramp metering and new software. Also, explains the anticipated results of the proposed projects.