Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Research & Innovation

Return to Search

Return to HomePage

Improving Minneapolis/St. Paul's Ramp Metering System for Smoother Traffic Flow

Status:  Complete
Report Date:  12/10/2007

Summary:

To streamline traffic flow and reduce backups on Twin Cities highways, MnDOT engineers researched ways to improve the algorithm they use to estimate queue size on entrance ramps and calculate minimum rates for releasing cars from ramps to highways. More than 20 parameters were tested through computer simulations. The new optimized algorithm and ramp-monitoring system increases average speed and reduces travel time and energy consumption.

Final Deliverables:

Related Materials:

Related Research: