Investigation of the Relationship Between Upstream and on-Ramp Flows at Downstream Capacity Level on Istanbul Freeway Merges

Abstract

Traffic congestion usually occurs at freeway merges due to the inequality of lane numbers at upstream and downstream. The freeway entry, defined as on-ramp, is the main cause of this irregularity and in order to clarify its effect, three freeway merges are investigated in this study with macroscopic flow parameters where a variety of geometric properties are present. In each merge, when the capacity flow is achieved at downstream, the on-ramp and upstream flows are determined and the relationship between upstream flow rate and 'on-ramp ratio', which is calculated by dividing the on ramp flow rate to the sum of on-ramp and upstream flow rates, is investigated. An inverse relationship is determined between total upstream flows (upstream flow plus on-ramp flow) with respect to on-ramp ratio. As a result, the merge with one lane drop and three-lanes at downstream seems to be least influenced type while the merge with two lanes drop and four lanes at downstream is the highest. For the former, 1% increase in on-ramp ratio causes a reduction of 20 pcu/h/lane on sum of total upstream flows while for the latter 26 pcu/h/lane. It is seen that the term on ramp ratio, can be quite useful variable for establishing capacities of freeway merges with the help of upstream and on-ramp traffic demands.