Traffic flow feedback control strategy based on macroscopic fundamental diagram

With the increasing ownership of private cars, the problem of traffic congestion in our daily life has become more and more serious. In order to alleviate the traffic congestion and improve the travel efficiency, a feedback control strategy for an traffic zone based on the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram is designed in this paper. According to the degree of intersections and other basis, the road network is divided into a number of traffic zones, and then extract MFD characteristics through conducting traffic surveys or simulation experiments and other means alike. By analyzing the relationship between the total number of vehicles and average flow in the zone, the vehicle-conservation equation is established. By setting the feedback controller at the boundary, feedback access control of the vehicle is carried out, and the number of vehicles in the zone is within the optimum range, so that the traffic volume of the zone is maximized. Taking several roads of Jinan as examples, the corresponding experiment simulation is carried out by using VISSIM simulation software. The experimental results show that the proposed feedback control strategy not only can effectively ensure the maximum traffic volume but also improve the road utilization and travel efficiency.