Two feedback control laws proposed recently, the K-V-W strategy and the traffic density tracker for automated highways, are intended to homogenize the traffic density along freeway sections, thus eliminating congestion. Slight modification to the traffic density tracker, with flexibly determined densities, ensures fair comparison at a decentralized level. A study has been conducted to evaluate the performance of these control laws for a variety of traffic congested conditions by simulation on a hypothetical freeway section of 10.5 kilometers. The simulation results show that the traffic density tracker with flexible control performs better on level sections of freeway with non-homogeneous condition or road blockage, requiring farther upstream starting-control point at higher flow levels. On the other hand, the K-V-W strategy (IRRD 867233) generally shows more promising results for upgrade section controls, which is insensitive to where the control starts.
Abstract