Predictive Time-Based Feedback Control Approach for Managing Freeway Incidents

A feedback control approach is introduced that produces dynamic control strategies in the form of alternate routes around freeway incidents and in response to the prevailing traffic conditions. The approach is based on the equalization of predictive travel times on alternate routes. The methodology is intended to be used as a decision-aid tool for real-time traffic management applications, more specifically for route guidance via variable message signs. The approach is implemented and tested computationally on an example network in a simulated environment under various scenarios of system disturbances. The results indicate that the performance of this approach is fairly robust to uncertainties in demand, compliance rate, and incident severity. It also performs better than an anticipatory approach and an instantaneous time–based feedback control approach.