Allocating Departure Time Slot to Optimize Dynamic Network Capacity : Allocating On-ramp Time Slot to Minimize the Total Travel-Time and Delay on A15 Motorway

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of time-slot allocation, its relationship with DTM, problem statement and research goal. Chapter 2 is the literature review, including topics in time-slot allocation, Ramp Metering/Corridor Control, and Network Capacity Optimization. These are all individual concepts while the underlined analysis tries to integrate each of these ideas and to serve to the time-slot concept. Chapter 3 analyzes the traffic states of A15 motorway network and the surroundings based on the monitoring data and simulation. The analysis triesto find whether there is more room left in some highway sections from time and space perspectives, and whether it is possible to use these available time slots for accommodating extra traffic to solve congestion in the network. Chapter 4 presents the methodology and mathematical formulation. Latedeparture only with linear programming; and late and early departures with costs based on non-linear programming are taken as two formulation cases. Meanwhile dynamic traffic simulation is carried out to get the traffic states. Both analytical formulation and dynamic simulation are performed and combined to search for an optimum time-slot allocation. Chapter 5 starts with a small test case to see whether the proposed methodology and framework can work and can explain the whole process in time-slot allocation. Algorithm comparison gives an idea of advantages and disadvantages of three algorithms. Chapter 6 answers the research questions, draws useful conclusions, gives some suggestion to road authorities and main stakeholders, presents the main conclusions and proposes the future research direction.