Anatomy of tunnel congestion : Causes and implications for tunnel traffic management

• Tunnel congestion is an important safety problem and is often dealt with using disruptive traffic management strategies, such as closures. The paper proposes an approach to identify the underlying causes of recurrent congestion in tunnels and tests the hypothesis that the cause may vary from day to day. It also suggests that the appropriate tunnel management strategy to deploy depends on the cause. Utilizing traffic sensor data the approach consists of: (i) cluster analysis of historical traffic data to identify distinct congestion patterns; (ii) in-depth analysis of the underlying demand patterns and associated bottlenecks; (iii) simulation to evaluate alternative strategies for each demand pattern; (iv) on-line classification analysis which is able to identify, in real time, the emerging congestion pattern, and inform the type of mitigation strategy to be implemented. The methodology is demonstrated for a congested tunnel in Stockholm, Sweden revealing two different spatio-temporal congestion patterns. The results show that, if the current strategy of closures is to be used, the timing should depend on the congestion pattern. However, metering is the most promising strategy. The on-line classification of the emerging congestion pattern is effective and can inform appropriate strategy proactively. The analysis emphasizes that the effectiveness of tunnel traffic management can be increased by identifying the causes of congestion on a given day.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Transportteknik och logistik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Transport Systems and Logistics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Tunnel traffic management

Data-driven analysis

Clustering

Simulation

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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