Evaluation of the Work Zone Merge Control Strategies Using the Extensive Simulation Experiments

摘要

To properly guide complicated merging and lane-changing activities at the lane closedwork zones, various merge control strategies have been developed and tested, withresulting in different performances of operational efficiency and traffic safety. However,there were few studies on comprehensive evaluations of their different mergingperformance under the same geographical and traffic conditions. This study hasemployed the extensive simulation experiments to operate three merge control strategies,i.e., SEM(static early merge), SLM(static late merge), and DLM(dynamic late merge),and investigate their merging features under the various traffic conditions at the samework zone environment. The evaluation results have revealed their relative anddistinctive properties, depending on traffic volumes and their fluctuations. Those outputsmay be useful as a guideline in planning a proper merge control strategy for the highwaywork zone operations.