Process Simulation Approach to Design and Evaluation of Toll Plaza with Etc Gates

This study proposes a process simulation-based approach to traffic jam issues in toll plaza with ETC gates in expressways. Describing overview of ETC system around the world as well as in Japan, the paper clarifies the issue of traffic jams, which occurs in toll plaza of expressways in Japan. Two kinds of solution to traffic jam issues are studied in this research. One is to determine the appropriate time in gate change for combination gates. The other one is to study the layout redesign of toll plaza to achieve more efficient performance. For these solutions, the paper describes the process simulation model which has been developed in this study, and also shows its internal procedures to simulate the traffic jams. Using the results of simulation, the feasibility of the model will be discussed. This paper also shows the results of simulation of a case study and discusses what the simulation-based approach can do in order to propose a practical solution to the traffic jam issues which prohibits the progress of ETC systems.