In the Netherlands, domestic freight is predominantly transported by road. The growth in domestic road freight transport is about 3 to 4% annually in terms of load tonnage kilometers, while international freight transport by road is increasing even faster. Given these developments it is questioned how the future main roads will handle the increasing goods transport. This paper investigates how the growth in freight transport will affect the traffic flow characteristics of motorways near connections with the underlying road network. In order to increase the efficiency and safety at these merging zones, dedicated lanes in combination with flow control measurements are proposed. Several scenarios are modeled with the advanced microscopic simulation model Simone. Results of these simulations show the positive impact of flow control measurements as the truck proportion grows. Gains are found in travel time, energy, efficiency and safety. The findings do also give support to the concept of freight automation on dedicated lanes as an extension of the scenarios currently investigated. For the covering abstract see ITRD E209471.
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