Implementing Variable Speed Limits on Urban Road Networks of Over-pass Area based on DynaCHINA

The urban expressway network is one of the city’s major traffic arteries. However, the urban road network near the overpass is the most congested area. Improving the traffic situation in this area has become an important issue. This paper presents a new real-time traffic estimation and prediction system, i.e., DynaCHINA which reproduces the traffic propagation by simulating the vehicle movement on the network. The improved mesoscopic traffic flow models are the key technologies that include some models such as static queuing model and the vehicle movement model. Moreover, a coordinated control approach is proposed to determine the traffic states by maximizing the total traffic flow of the network in the simulation period. Also, the variable speed limits can be implemented near the overpass area. The results demonstrated the feasibility of the models. In some cases, the proposed variable speed limits is an effective way to alleviate the traffic congestion in urban road networks.