Electronic toll collection systems (ETCSs) have been studied for Japanese toll road systems under the guidance of the Ministry of Construction. When using an ETC facility at conventional toll gates, the steady flow of vehicles can be disturbed and both safety and smoothness in the flow can be lost. This is undesirable and it is important to determine all gate operating modes optimally by taking account of the complication of traffic behavior. A traffic simulator is suitable to evaluate such flow numerically. Numerical experiments were carried out and the number of lane changes was used as an evaluation item. The result showed it is more effective to use a dual mode gate, which accepts both conventional vehicles and vehicles equipped with the ETC facility, rather than the dedicated mode gate.
Abstract