Special Research question

In the Netherlands there is a complex road network of about 140.000 kilometers, of which 5.500 kilometers are national roads. These national roads are very busy, so, it’s understandable that when something disrupts the traffic flow this can have a big impact. The size and consequences of the impact of a disruption is indicated by the resilience. Resilience of a transportation system indicates how well the system can withstand and recover from disruptions. A resilient transport system is able to withstand disruptions, and able to recover from them quickly. Recent research has shown that resilience of road networks is strongly… Read More »Resilience

Traffic management in urban networks is considerably more complicated as a great variety of transport modalities with different characteristics are using the same network. For example, a green wave for cars often will not be a green wave for cyclists. And priority for public transport vehicles at an intersection simply means that other modes will have to wait longer. The problem that needs to be addressed is whether there are control principles that can be applied on the basis of a socially responsible allocation of the available capacity. Prior to formulating these control principles it will be necessary to investigate which… Read More »Multimodal traffic management

Although traffic demand fluctuates throughout the day, the infrastructure present to accommodate that demand is mostly fixed. Notable exceptions are the so called rush hour lanes. These are lanes that are opened to traffic during times of increased traffic demand. When not in use to serve regular traffic, they are used as emergency lanes as most of the time it concerns converted shoulder lanes. Similarly, urban roads also have to deal with fluctuating demand throughout the day. In some areas there are clear flows in the morning that enter an area whereas in the evening the same flow can be seen… Read More »Flexible infrastructure

For the planning of road works Rijkswaterstaat is looking for a fast and simple method to estimate the effects of road works on congestion. If they know the extra congestion due to a complete closure or a lane closure for a certain motorway (for the different days in the week and holidays), they are able to better plan their road works. So, the question is how this can be obtained using existing data and existing tools.

This research focuses on the comparison of  existing macroscopic DTA-models. The comparison should focus on the functionality and properties of propagation models. The most important points of interest are the behaviour of the models with respect to spillback effects and the effect of intersections in urban areas. The comparison could be done in two steps. Firstly, a methodological comparison using theoretical test networks should be conducted to isolate and qualitatively describe the individual differences. Secondly a (small) case study using a realistic network from an existing strategic transport model combined with (big) data (traffic counts and observed travel times and… Read More »Value of macroscopic dynamic traffic assignment models

On motorways, lane change decisions and choices have not been fully understood. This is especially true at interacting bottlenecks where the lane changing activity is dependent upon a multitude of reasons and simple gap acceptance models cannot be used to explain them. Interacting bottlenecks implies that multiple bottlenecks such as lane drops, ramps etc. lie in close vicinity to one another impacting the lane change decision making of drivers near them. This is also true for roads with traffic signals. It is not known how drivers choose their lane of preference. In order to come up with efficient traffic control measures… Read More »Lane changing behaviour on motorways and other roads