On-Ramp Traffic Merging Modeling Based on Cellular Automata

Bottlenecks represent locations in a traffic network where capacity is greatly reduced. For that reason merging models are an important component of microscopic traffic simulation. In this paper an asymmetric two lanes cellular automata (CA) model with an on-ramp for traffic flow simulation is presented. The model takes into account mechanical restrictions of vehicles and drivers psychological behavior and preserves the computational simplicity of CA traffic models. The aim is to explore the usefulness of CA to model and simulate properly the access of vehicles from on-ramps to the main lanes of a road. Extensive simulation results indicate that CA models can adequately capture the complexity, in terms of traffic phases, of on-ramp merging in real traffic and reproduce the bottlenecks induced by large volumes of traffic flow demanding access to the road.