David Levinson, Associate Professor, Civil Engineering
Traffic simulation is only as good as its input data. Unfortunately, it is impossible to inexpensively measure entry ramp to exit ramp flows, which would be particularly useful for testing ramp metering control strategies. In the past, research supported by Mn/DOT and CTS has produced a viable method for estimating freeway origin-destination (O-D) patterns from loop detector data. This research will further develop and apply those methods to estimate O-D demand for use in traffic simulation of freeway sections and corridors. The researchers require zone-to-zone traffic flows from a transportation planning model, and the flows entering and exiting on freeway ramps. The objective is to estimate the traffic from each on-ramp to each downstream off-ramp in short time intervals (e.g., 5 min.). This research will include development and implementation of software to enable the method to be used conveniently with easy-to-collect data, and will test the method on Minnesota Trunk Highway 169.