Understanding Risks and Opportunities for Ramp Metering Control in a Mixed-Autonomy Future

Status: Active
Project Start Date: 09/02/2022

Summary:

This project will answer how ramp metering strategies employed in Minnesota may be influenced by different vehicle automation scenarios such as automated vehicle market penetration rates both for proposed, fully automated vehicles and currently-available low-level automated vehicles. Additionally, this project will develop strategies to keep Minnesota ramp meters effective under scenarios with increased autonomy. Furthermore, under the new traffic flow-density relationship that is emerging in a mixed autonomy traffic flow, traditional ramp metering may create unsafe conditions due to rapidly propagating queues. This project will also address safety considerations for ramp metering in an automated future.