Reexamination of the analysis of freeway bottlenecks

Abstract

Urban traffic demand has increased so rapidly in recent years that, despite improvements and expansion in transportation network, many highways are approaching severely congested conditions sooner than expected. Hence, seeking solutions to the congestion has become an important priority for traffic engineers. This paper reexamines the two simple methods of analysis and attempts to explain why such large discrepancies exist in the results produced. It then demonstrates through a numerical example that there is, in effect, very difference in the results of the two methods, provided that the bottleneck problem is completely set up.