Anticipative ramp metering control for freeway traffic networks

We develop an anticipative model-based predictive traffic control approach for ramp metering in freeway traffic networks. If ramp metering is implemented in a freeway network with alternative routes, traffic can spontaneously re-route due to the response of the drivers to the applied control actions. Although spontaneous re-routing can have a significant influence on the resulting traffic situation in the traffic network and on the performance of the traffic network as a whole, rerouting is usually not automatically included in current freeway traffic control frameworks. In this paper, we develop a new method to efficiently calculate and incorporate re-routing effects into a model-based predictive traffic control framework. In this way, anticipative model predictive control for ramp metering in freeway networks is realized. Note that although the focus in this paper is on ramp metering, the approach presented here can also be used for other traffic control measures.