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TRAFFIC BOTTLENECK INTRODUCTION Websters Dictionary defines a bottleneck as: i. ii.

A narrow or obstructed portion of a highway or pipeline; or A hindrance to production or progress.

Certainly the elemental characteristics of traffic bottlenecks exist in these descriptions. However, a road does not necessarily have to narrow for a bottleneck to exist (e.g., witness bottlenecks caused by a weave condition, sun glare, or a vertical climb). A bottleneck is distinguished from congestion in that it occurs at a specific location, and not pervasively along the entire corridor. Traffic congestion has severely affected the city's development. It is slowing down the speed of vehicles due to disruptions of traffic and directly increases the time taken from one place to another destination. A traffic bottleneck is a localized disruption of vehicular traffic on a street, road or highway. As opposed to a traffic jam, a bottleneck is a result of a specific physical condition, often the design of the road, badly timed traffic lights, or sharp curves. They are also caused by temporary situations, such as vehicular accidents, mudslides occurs unexpectedly beside the lane, bursting of piping system and etc. Besides, a construction zone where causes one or more existing lanes become unavailable or even in the absence of construction, permanently narrowing lanes on highway can be considered as bottleneck due to capacity falls. Bottlenecks can be divided into two types: moving bottleneck and stationary bottleneck. Since traffic bottleneck is a one of the problem of traffic congestion for commuters, the research on method of traffic network bottleneck identification which can find weak parts of the traffic network and provide a basis for resolving the traffic problem, is becoming very important. Traffic engineering deals with the planning, geometric design and traffic operations of roads, streets, and highways, their networks, terminals, abutting lands and relationships with other modes of transportation for the achievement of safe, efficient, and convenient movement of persons and goods. It applies engineering principles to help solve transportation problems, and brings into play knowledge of psychology and habits of users of the transportation systems.

LITERATURE In the past, recurring congestion was felt to be a systemic problem (not enough lanes). It is true that additional lanes are usually needed in conjunction with bottleneck improvements to handle the additional traffic that is now freed up, but the root cause of recurring congestion is in fact bottlenecks, not uniform highway segments. Exhibit 1 shows these subordinate locations. Traditional capital solutions

grew from this mindset, resulting in extensive corridor-wide improvements. The problem is that funding for these large scale projects is limited and they take a long time (many years) to complete, so recurring congestion goes untreated until funding becomes available. However, if agencies shift their focus from recurring congestion being systemic (and thus treatable with only large projects) to being caused by specific chokepoints, a wider range of improvement strategies are possible, especially in the short term. While these will never replace the need for corridor-wide fixes especially at the megabottlenecks such as freeway-to-freeway interchanges bottleneck-specific improvements can provide effective congestion relief.
Exhibit 1. Common Locations for Localized Bottlenecks Location Symbol Description Bottlenecks can occur at lane drops, particularly midsegment where one or more traffic lanes ends or at a low-volume exit ramp. They might occur at jurisdictional boundaries, just outside the metropolitan area, or at the project limits of the last megaproject. Ideally, lane drops should be located at exit ramps where there is a sufficient volume of exiting traffic. Bottlenecks can occur at weaving areas, where traffic must merge across one or more lanes to access entry or exit ramps or enter the freeway main lanes. Bottleneck conditions are exacerbated by complex or insufficient weaving design and distance. Bottlenecks can occur at freeway on-ramps, where traffic from local streets or frontage roads merges onto a freeway. Bottleneck conditions are worsened on freeway onramps without auxiliary lanes, short acceleration ramps, where there are multiple onramps in close proximity and when peak volumes are high or large platoons of vehicles enter at the same time. Freeway exit ramps, which are diverging areas where traffic leaves a freeway, can cause localized congestion. Bottlenecks are exacerbated on freeway exit ramps that have a short ramp length, traffic signal deficiencies at the ramp terminal intersection, or other conditions (e.g., insufficient storage length) that may cause ramp queues to back up onto freeway main lanes. Bottlenecks could also occur when a freeway exit ramp shares an auxiliary lane with an upstream on-ramp, particularly when there are large volumes of entering and exiting traffic. Freeway-to-freeway interchanges, which are special cases on on-ramps where flow from one freeway is directed to another. These are typically the most severe form of physical bottlenecks because of the high traffic volumes involved. Changes in highway alignment, which occur at sharp curves and hills and cause drivers to slow down either because of safety concerns or because their vehicles cannot maintain speed on upgrades. Another example of this type of bottleneck is in work zones where lanes may be shifted or narrowed during construction. Bottlenecks can occur at low-clearance structures, such as tunnels and underpasses. Drivers slow to use extra caution, or to use overload bypass routes. Even sufficiently tall clearances could cause bottlenecks if an optical illusion causes a structure to appear lower than it really is, causing drivers to slow down. Bottlenecks can be caused by either narrow lanes or narrow or a lack of roadway shoulders. This is particularly true in locations with high volumes of oversize vehicles and large trucks. Bottlenecks can be caused by traffic control devices that are necessary to manage overall system operations. Traffic signals, freeway ramp meters, and tollbooths can all contribute to disruptions in traffic flow.

Lane Drops

Weaving Areas

Freeway On-Ramps

Freeway Exit Ramps

Freeway-to-Freeway Interchanges

Changes in Highway Alignment

Tunnels/Underpasses

Narrow Lanes/Lack of Shoulders

Traffic Control Devices

METHODOLOGY Normally, the method used for analysis of bottleneck is queue-theoretic model. A graphically relation between the time and distance that vehicles spend in a queue upstream of a bottleneck. The time that a vehicle spends traversing a queue (time in queue or waiting time) is greater than its delay, which represents the difference between the time a vehicle takes to traverse a distance and the time it would have taken if unobstructed. The diagram provides valuable informationrequired to evaluate the impacts of bottlenecks, including the total time (and distance) spent by vehicles in different queued states, the number of vehicles changing between states, and the physical extent of the queue at any time. Hotspots of bottlenecks have to be identified. Then, cumulative data has to be collected from a certain period of time. A graph is constructed to better understand the situation of the bottlenecks and generate solutions to overcome the problems.

FORMULA In analysing the trend of bottleneck, kinematic theory allows one to predict the evolution of traffic given initial andboundary conditions. The theory has three main components. The first assumption is some functional relation exists between traffic flow q and density k, which holdseverywhere in the time-space (t,x) plane, such that q = Q(k, x,t). The second component predicts the characteristics of the discontinuousboundaries, or interfaces, between regions of the (t,x) plane where the traffic state, (q,k),varies smoothly. These interfaces sometimes referred to as shock waves, and usually do notremain stationary in space. The speed at which an interface travels is defined to be DqDk,where Dqand Dkare the changes in flow and density between the separated states.The third component of the kinematic theory is focusing on the idea of stability.

We are going to construct a back-of-queue curve for a bottleneck with a constant capacity and another one with capacity changes once at a known time. For both cases, it is assumed that a constant free-flow speed,vfholds for all uncongested traffic, independent of flow. Consistent with the kinematic theory, it is further assumed that a q-k relation holds for queued traffic, so that vehicles in the queue behind a bottleneck serving at a maximum rate will travel at a constant speed v(<vf), dependent only on the capacity. Further, it is assumed that speed changes occur instantaneously, and that vehicles neither enter nor leave the traffic stream while queued upstream of the bottleneck.

We analyse first the bottleneck with a constant capacity. It demonstrates that a relationship exists between a vehicles time spent in queue upstream of a bottleneck, tQ, and its delay, w:

TQ =w/(1-vu/vf)

This relationship can be used to show vehicles encountering a bottleneck in order to represent graphically spatial and temporal queue characteristics.

If bottleneck capacity changes once, a linear relation can be constructed. The q-k relation for queued traffic in the homogeneous highway section upstream of the bottleneck is linear where bottleneck capacity changes at once at a certain period. A homogeneous queue means that the departure rate at the bottleneck when this vehicle first enters the queue will be the same rate that is in place when it passes the bottleneck at a constant capacity. However, if the capacity has changes, its no longer homogeneous and the equation above cannot be applied directly.Given a triangular qk relation, any wave created by a change in bottleneck capacity will pass vehicles at a constant rate, UI: UI=qmax/(1-qmax/kjvf)

SOLVE WORKED EXAMPLE Theres some ways to reduce traffic bottleneck:


Use a short section of traffic bearing shoulder as a peak-hour lane. Re-stripe merge or diverge areas to better serve demand. Modify weaving areas - add a collector/distributor lane or similar. Meter or close entrance ramps. Improve traffic signal timing on arterials. Provide traffic diversion information.

REFERENCE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/bn/lbr.htm http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/bn/index.htm http://www.azdot.gov/highways/traffic/trafeng.asp#one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_bottleneck#Causes http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop12012/sec1.htm http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop12012/sec2.htm

Prepared by: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Ban Sau Soon AA100015 Nur Dhabitah Akmal Binti Abdul Rahman AA100131 Tan Chun Hong AA100183 Tan Shyuan Jy AA100185 Gamal Maged Mohamed AA104003

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