Current Search:  toll plaza simulation (x)

View All Items

  • CSV Spreadsheet
(1 - 4 of 4)
DEVELOPING MICROSCOPIC TOLL PLAZA MODEL USING PARAMICS
Title
DEVELOPING MICROSCOPIC TOLL PLAZA MODEL USING PARAMICS.
Creator
Nezamuddin, Nezamuddin, Al-Deek, Haitham, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Simulation modeling is the most cost-effective way of studying real life transportation problems, either existing or anticipated, without disturbing the balance of the transportation system. There is a vast suite of simulation models available in market, ready to choose from macroscopic, mesoscopic, or microscopic in nature, to study different transportation system elements like freeways, highways, signalized and un-signalized intersections. However, most of these network simulation models,...
Show moreSimulation modeling is the most cost-effective way of studying real life transportation problems, either existing or anticipated, without disturbing the balance of the transportation system. There is a vast suite of simulation models available in market, ready to choose from macroscopic, mesoscopic, or microscopic in nature, to study different transportation system elements like freeways, highways, signalized and un-signalized intersections. However, most of these network simulation models, like PARAMICS, VISSIM, CORSIM … etc, do not come readily available with built in toll plaza models. On the other hand, many researchers have independently developed toll plaza models, which can only model an isolated toll plaza without the road network. These toll plaza models, which are based on queuing theory (and some are macroscopic in nature), do not take into account headway, gap acceptance, or inter-vehicle interaction to follow a lead car or to perform lane changing maneuvers. Vehicles just upstream of the toll plaza are assigned to one of the toll lanes, solely based on the payment method (manual, automatic coin machine, or electronic toll collection) and queue lengths at the toll lanes. For instance, if a vehicle is traveling in the leftmost lane and the rightmost toll lane has the shortest queue length, then the queuing model will assign this vehicle to the rightmost lane, and the vehicle will do unrealistic maneuvering to reach to the assigned toll lane instantly. Microscopic network simulation models simulate the vehicular movements based on lane-changing and car-following rules. If such a model could be customized to serve the purpose of the toll plaza simulation, it will simulate the vehicular movements just upstream and downstream of the toll plaza more realistically. Being a network simulation model, it can also model the road network integrated with the plaza, which can be used to study the entire toll road corridor, unlike the isolated toll plaza models. In addition to being a microscopic network simulation model, PARAMICS has many simulation tools, which can be customized to develop a network model with enhanced toll plaza simulation capabilities. PARAMICS also provides the flexibility of using an aerial picture of the toll plaza and upstream/downstream sections of the road as overlay, to ensure that the toll plaza model operates under similar geometric conditions as the real plaza. Using an overlay, exact details of the transition area can be fed into the model. In real life, there is a smooth transition (in terms of the number of lanes and the width of the roadway) from the uniform free-flowing section of the roadway to the toll plaza. Detailed representation of the transition area, in terms of geometry and curb of the roadway along with the number of lanes, is essential for a realistic toll plaza simulation. This kind of detail is not available in a queuing model. As the roadway approaches the toll plaza, it contains more lanes compared to its upstream segments. However, in a simulation model vehicles have a tendency to maintain the same old lanes, and the newly added lanes remain unoccupied by the vehicles. Next-lane Allocation feature in PARAMICS can be used to map upstream lanes onto downstream lanes, preventing this unrealistic behavior from occurring in the simulation model. It tells the vehicles in a particular upstream lane to choose from one or more of the downstream lanes as per the settings. Next-lane allocation can be used in such a manner that all the downstream lanes are utilized. PARAMICS has several other tools such as Restrictions Manager, Vehicle Type Manager, Lane-choices Rules, HOV Lanes, and Vehicle Actuated (VA) Signals which can be used in combination to build a toll plaza model. A microscopic 'Holland East Plaza - SR408' network model has been developed using PARAMICS V5.1. This model contains the plaza and the downstream section of SR 408 Westbound till I-4 interchange in downtown Orlando. This model has been successfully calibrated and validated for the mainline toll plaza and ramp volumes for year 2004. Several hypothetical incident scenarios were simulated to study an entire corridor from the toll plaza to Interstate 4. It was found that the volumes on I-4 off-ramp and SR 408 mainline were affected the most under incident conditions. Volumes for other ramps were not affected in the same proportions. An incident on mainline toll road affected the throughput of the plaza significantly, but the same is not true for an incident on an off-ramp. Travel times to I-4 off-ramps and SR 408 thru lanes were the most sensitive in each of the incident scenarios. In case of the elimination of tolls during the hurricane evacuation, the throughput of the plaza increased significantly. Travel times for the vehicles coming through the plaza and going to different destinations decreased significantly, while it increased for vehicles using on-ramps, because of their inability to merge in the mainline traffic due to the increased toll road volume. The developed model in this thesis has the potential of transportation network wide applications with multiple toll plazas.
Show less
Date Issued
2006
Identifier
CFE0001183, ucf:46851
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001183
THE CALIBRATION AND VERIFICATION OF SIMULATION MODELS FOR TOLL PLAZAS
Title
THE CALIBRATION AND VERIFICATION OF SIMULATION MODELS FOR TOLL PLAZAS.
Creator
Russo, Christopher, Radwan, Essam, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
A great deal of research has been conducted on Central Florida toll roads to better understand the characteristics of the tolling operation. In this thesis, the development and calibration of a toll plaza simulation models will be analyzed using two simulation programs varying mostly in their modeling theory. The two models utilized are, SHAKER, a deterministic queuing model for vehicles utilizing toll collection facilities, and VISSIM, a globally popular stochastic simulation software. The...
Show moreA great deal of research has been conducted on Central Florida toll roads to better understand the characteristics of the tolling operation. In this thesis, the development and calibration of a toll plaza simulation models will be analyzed using two simulation programs varying mostly in their modeling theory. The two models utilized are, SHAKER, a deterministic queuing model for vehicles utilizing toll collection facilities, and VISSIM, a globally popular stochastic simulation software. The benefits of simulation models leads to the purpose of this thesis, which is to examine the effectiveness of two toll modeling programs that are similar in purpose but vary in approach and methodology. Both SHAKER and VISSIM toll plaza models have the potential to work as a tool that can estimate the maximum throughput and capacity of toll plazas. Major operational benefits resulting from developing these models are to simulate and evaluate how traffic conditions will change when demand increases, when and if queues increase when a lane is closed due to maintenance or construction, the impact of constructing additional lanes, or determining whether or not the best lane type configuration is currently implemented. To effectively calibrate any model available site data must be used to compare simulation results to for model validity. In an effort to correctly calibrate the SHAKER toll plaza tool and VISSIM model, an extensive field collection procedure was conducted at four Florida Turnpike operated toll facilities located in Central Florida. Each site differed from the others in terms of number of lanes, lane configuration, toll base fee, highway location, traffic demand, and vehicle percentage. The sites chosen for data collection were: the Lake Jesup Mainline Plaza along the Seminole Expressway (SR-417), the Beachline West Expressway Toll Plaza along the SR-528, the Daniel Webster Western Beltway Plaza along SR-429, and the Leesburg Toll Plaza along the Florida Turnpike Mainline SR-91. Upon completion of calibration of the two simulation models it is determined that each of the two software are successful in modeling toll plaza capacity and queuing. As expected, each simulation model does possess benefits over the other in terms of set up time, analysis reporting time, and practicality of results. The SHAKER model setup takes mere seconds in order to create a network and input vehicle, another few seconds to calibrate driving parameters, and roughly 10 additional seconds to report analysis. Conversely, setting up the VISSIM model, even for the most experienced user, can take several hours and the report analysis time can take several more hours as it is dependant on the number of required simulation runs and complexity of the network. VISSIM is most beneficial by the fact that its modeling allows for driver variability while SHAKER assumes equilibrium amongst lane choice and queuing. This creates a more realistic condition to observed traffic patterns. Even though differences are prevalent, it is important that in each simulation model the capacity is accurately simulated and each can be used to benefit operational situations related to toll plaza traffic conditions.
Show less
Date Issued
2008
Identifier
CFE0002376, ucf:47821
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002376
Evaluation of Real World Toll Plazas Using Driving Simulation
Title
Evaluation of Real World Toll Plazas Using Driving Simulation.
Creator
Carroll, Kali, Abdel-Aty, Mohamed, Lee, JaeYoung, Eluru, Naveen, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Toll plazas are becoming an essential part of the highway system, especially within the state of Florida. Many crashes reported on highways occur at toll plazas. A primary reason for many vehicle collisions happening at these facilities is the fact that each toll plaza agency has different design, signage and marking criteria. This, in turn, causes driver confusion and possible last minute weaving maneuvers. Even though the varying design of toll plazas is a clear highway safety factor,...
Show moreToll plazas are becoming an essential part of the highway system, especially within the state of Florida. Many crashes reported on highways occur at toll plazas. A primary reason for many vehicle collisions happening at these facilities is the fact that each toll plaza agency has different design, signage and marking criteria. This, in turn, causes driver confusion and possible last minute weaving maneuvers. Even though the varying design of toll plazas is a clear highway safety factor, research in the field is very limited but expanding. This study focuses on one toll plaza, in particular the Dean Mainline Toll Plaza, located in Orlando, Florida. The toll plaza is located directly between two roads that are in close proximity of each other. Because of this, the toll plaza is very close to the on- and off- ramps, which can be even more confusing and stressful for a driver entering or leaving the highway. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficiency of the Dean Mainline Toll Plaza in order to make recommendations to improve or maintain the current toll plaza design, as well as potentially contribute to a nationally set design standard for toll plazas. Using the NADS miniSimTM Simulator, 72 subjects were recruited, and each subject was asked to drive 3 scenarios that were randomly selected from a pool of 24 scenarios. The following factors were changed in order to study the driver's behavior: signage and their location, pavement markings, distances between the toll plaza and ramps, and traffic conditions. All of these factors were altered and observed on five of the eight possible routes than can be taken through the toll plaza. The subjects were asked to complete questionnaires before and after all of the scenarios, as well as in between each driving scenario. These questionnaires included demographic characteristics, such as age, education, income, E-PASS ownership, etc. The data that were collected by the driving simulator and questionnaires were analyzed by ANOVA and multinomial logistic regression models. A positive relationship was found between non-urgent lane changing and the current real-world sign conditions prior to the toll plaza. Relationships were also found between the subjects' speed in various locations and signage before the toll plaza and segment length after the toll plaza. Along with specified recommendations for future research in toll plaza safety, recommendations for the Dean Mainline Toll Plaza include maintaining the current signs and pavement markings, as they were found to be beneficial in drivers performing safe lane changing maneuvers.
Show less
Date Issued
2016
Identifier
CFE0006085, ucf:50960
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006085
Analysis of Driving Behavior at Expressway Toll Plazas using Driving Simulator
Title
Analysis of Driving Behavior at Expressway Toll Plazas using Driving Simulator.
Creator
Saad, Moatz, Abdel-Aty, Mohamed, Eluru, Naveen, Lee, JaeYoung, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The objective of this study is to analyze the driving behavior at toll plazas by examining multiple scenarios using a driving simulator to study the effect of different options including different path decisions, various signs, arrow markings, traffic conditions, and extending auxiliary lanes before and after the toll plaza on the driving behavior. Also, this study focuses on investigating the effect of drivers' characteristics on the dangerous driving behavior (e.g. speed variation, sudden...
Show moreThe objective of this study is to analyze the driving behavior at toll plazas by examining multiple scenarios using a driving simulator to study the effect of different options including different path decisions, various signs, arrow markings, traffic conditions, and extending auxiliary lanes before and after the toll plaza on the driving behavior. Also, this study focuses on investigating the effect of drivers' characteristics on the dangerous driving behavior (e.g. speed variation, sudden lane change, drivers' confusion). Safety and efficiency are the fundamental goals that transportation engineering is always seeking for the design of highways. Transportation agencies have a crucial challenging task to accomplish traffic safety, particularly at the locations that have been identified as crash hotspots. In fact, toll plaza locations are one of the most critical and challenging areas that expressway agencies have to pay attention to because of the increasing traffic crashes over the past years near toll plazas.Drivers are required to make many decisions at expressway toll plazas which result in drivers' confusion, speed variation, and abrupt lane change maneuvers. These crucial decisions are mainly influenced by three reasons. First, the limited distance between toll plazas and the merging areas at the on-ramps before the toll plazas. In additional to the limited distance between toll plazas and the diverging areas after the toll plazas at the off-ramps. Second, it is also affected by the location and the configuration of signage and pavement markings. Third, drivers' decisions are affected by the different lane configurations and tolling systems that can cause drivers' confusion and stress. Nevertheless, limited studies have explored the factors that influence driving behavior and safety at toll plazas. There are three main systems of the toll plaza, the traditional mainline toll plaza (TMTP), the hybrid mainline toll plaza (HMTP), and the all-electronic toll collection (AETC). Recently, in order to improve the safety and the efficiency of the toll plazas, most of the traditional mainline toll plazas have been converted to the hybrid toll plazas or the all-electronic toll collection plazas. This study assessed driving behavior at a section, including a toll plaza on one of the main expressways in Central Florida. The toll plaza is located between a close on-ramp and a nearby off-ramp. Thus, these close distances have a significant effect on increasing driver's confusion and unexpected lane change before and after the toll plaza. Driving simulator experiments were used to study the driving behavior at, before and after the toll plaza. The details of the section and the plaza were accurately replicated in the simulator. In the driving simulator experiment, Seventy-two drivers with different age groups were participated. Subsequently, each driver performed three separate scenarios out of a total of twenty-four scenarios. Seven risk indicators were extracted from the driving simulator experiment data by using MATLAB software. These variables are average speed, standard deviation of speed, standard deviation of lane deviation, acceleration rate, standard deviation of acceleration (acceleration noise), deceleration rate, and standard deviation of deceleration (braking action variation). Moreover, various scenario variables were tested in the driving simulator including different paths, signage, pavement markings, traffic condition, and extending auxiliary lanes before and after the toll plaza. Divers' individual characteristics were collected from a questionnaire before the experiment. Also, drivers were filling a questionnaire after each scenario to check for simulator sickness or discomfort. Nine variables were extracted from the simulation questionnaire for representing individual characteristics including, age, gender, education level, annual income, crash experience, professional drivers, ETC-tag use, driving frequency, and novice international drivers. A series of mixed linear models with random effects to account for multiple observations from the same participant were developed to reveal the contributing factors that affect driving behavior at toll plazas. The results uncovered that all drivers who drove through the open road tolling (ORT) showed higher speed and lower speed variation, lane deviation, and acceleration noise than other drivers who navigate through the tollbooth. Also, the results revealed that providing adequate signage, and pavement markings are effective in reducing risky driving behavior at toll plazas. Drivers tend to drive with less lane deviation and acceleration noise before the toll plaza when installing arrow pavement markings. Adding dynamic message sign (DMS) at the on-ramp has a significant effect on reducing speed variation before the toll plaza. Likewise, removing the third overhead sign before the toll plaza has a considerable influence on reducing aggressive driving behavior before and after the toll plaza. This result may reflect drivers' desire to feel less confusion by excessive signs and markings. Third, extending auxiliary lanes with 660 feet (0.125 miles) before or after the toll plaza have an effect on increasing the average speed and reducing the lane deviation and the speed variation at and before the toll plaza. It also has an impact on increasing the acceleration noise and the braking action variation after the toll plaza. Finally, it was found that in congested conditions, participants drive with a lower speed variation and lane deviation before the toll plaza but with a higher acceleration noise after the toll plaza. On the other hand, understanding drivers' characteristics is particularly important for exploring their effect on risky driving behavior. Young drivers (18-25) and old drivers (older than 50 years) consistently showed a higher risk behavior than middle age drivers (35 to 50). Also, it was found that male drivers are riskier than female drivers at toll plazas. Drivers with high education level, drivers with high income, ETC-tag users, and drivers whose driving frequency is less than three trips per day are more cautious and tend to drive at a lower speed.
Show less
Date Issued
2016
Identifier
CFE0006492, ucf:51391
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006492