Perimeter Control for Arterial Networks: a case study in Sydney

The aim of this project is to validate and implement the existence of Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) and apply Perimeter Control in real arterial networks.

Currently most traffic management methods for urban transport networks apply decentralised control, which is less efficient for heterogeneously loaded networks under congested conditions with long queues and spillbacks. The Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) aims to simplify the urban traffic micro-modeling, where the collective traffic flow behaviors of subnetworks capture the main characteristics of traffic dynamics, such as the evolution of space-mean flows and densities in different regions of the network.

This collaborative project aims at validating and implementing the existence of MFD and applying Perimeter Control in real arterial networks, namely in the city of Sydney, Australia. These are one of the first case studies of MFD to use real signalized intersection data with a view to implementation in the existing arterial control system. Real data from more than 1500 stop-line loop detectors of the existing SCATS system are studied and partitioning algorithms are applied. Afterwards, a perimeter control logic to control the inter transfers between different sub-regions of the city will communicate with the SCATS system to increase the network capacity.

This research project will last 18 months and will be carried out by the Urban Transport Systems Laboratory of Prof. Nikolas Geroliminis in collaboration with the Australian Centre for Commercial Mathematics (ACCM) at University of New South Wales (UNSW). It is sponsored by the Roads and Maritime Services at NSW (RMS).

Principal investigator Prof. Nikolas Geroliminis (Swiss side)
Sponsor Roads and Maritime Services (Australia)
Period 2013-2014
Laboratory LUTS
Collaboration TRACE