Improving Travel Time Reliability with Variable Speed Limits
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866918140937502720 |
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| author | Hammerl, Alexander Seshadri, Ravi Rasmussen, Thomas Kjær Nielsen, Otto Anker |
| author_facet | Hammerl, Alexander Seshadri, Ravi Rasmussen, Thomas Kjær Nielsen, Otto Anker |
| contents | This paper analyzes the use of variable speed limits to optimize travel time reliability for commuters. The investigation focuses on a traffic corridor with a bottleneck subject to the capacity drop phenomenon. The optimization criterion is a linear combination of the expected value and standard deviation of average travel time, with traffic flow dynamics following the kinematic wave model (Lighthill, 1955; Richards, 1956). We develop two complementary models to optimally set variable speed limits: In the first model, daily peak traffic demand is conceptualized as a stochastic variable, and the resulting model is solved through a three-stage optimization algorithm. The second model is based on deterministic demand, instead modeling bottleneck capacity as a stochastic process using a stochastic differential equation (SDE). The practical applicability of both approaches is demonstrated through numerical examples with empirically calibrated data. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_08059 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Improving Travel Time Reliability with Variable Speed Limits Hammerl, Alexander Seshadri, Ravi Rasmussen, Thomas Kjær Nielsen, Otto Anker Optimization and Control This paper analyzes the use of variable speed limits to optimize travel time reliability for commuters. The investigation focuses on a traffic corridor with a bottleneck subject to the capacity drop phenomenon. The optimization criterion is a linear combination of the expected value and standard deviation of average travel time, with traffic flow dynamics following the kinematic wave model (Lighthill, 1955; Richards, 1956). We develop two complementary models to optimally set variable speed limits: In the first model, daily peak traffic demand is conceptualized as a stochastic variable, and the resulting model is solved through a three-stage optimization algorithm. The second model is based on deterministic demand, instead modeling bottleneck capacity as a stochastic process using a stochastic differential equation (SDE). The practical applicability of both approaches is demonstrated through numerical examples with empirically calibrated data. |
| title | Improving Travel Time Reliability with Variable Speed Limits |
| topic | Optimization and Control |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08059 |