Analysis of traffic flow at complex congested arterials

A dynamic macroscopic methodology for analyzing traffic flow at congested intersections and arterial streets is presented in this paper. This includes complexities frequently encountered in practice such as turning and optional lanes, sinks and sources, and spillback effects. The dynamics of interrupted flow under both sign and signal control are treated in an integrated fashion by considering the coupling effects of the main and side street flows. Compressibility is inherently included in the state equation employed; therefore, dispersion and compression characteristics are built into the analysis. The proposed methodology is particularly applicable to severely congested networks where spillbacks must be taken into account. Implementation of the state equations is performed numerically; this allows inclusion of stochastic and heuristic aspects for treating phenomena difficult to deal with macroscopically. The modelling and numerical treatment employed is easily implementable to microcomputers.