Using Microscopic Simulation
to Evaluate Potential Intelligent
Transportation System Strategies
Under Nonrecurrent Congestion
Lianyu Chu, Henry X. Liu, and Will Recker
A microsimulation method is presented for evaluating the effectiveness
of potential intelligent transportation system (ITS) strategies under non-
recurrent congestion. The evaluated ITS strategies include incident man-
agement, adaptive ramp metering, traveler information systems, arterial
management, and a combination of those strategies. These strategies are
implemented and evaluated over a road network in Irvine, California,
with the microsimulation model PARAMICS. The evaluation results
show that all ITS strategies have positive effects on network perfor-
mance. Because of the network topology (one major freeway with two
parallel arterial streets), real-time traveler information has the greatest
benefits among all single ITS strategies. However, a combination of ITS
strategies can further increase benefits.
Many intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies and strate-
gies, such as vehicle-actuated signals, ramp metering, and variable
message signs (VMS) have been applied to transportation systems
and to improving real-world traffic conditions. In the near future,
some more-complex ITS applications, such as adaptive signal control,
adaptive ramp metering, and a combination of several ITS strategies,
will have the potential to be implemented in the real world. Field oper-
ational tests of these strategies may be difficult and costly; however,
without prior testing, some ITS applications may not work properly
or may not positively affect traffic conditions. For decision makers,
questions related to whether an ITS strategy is warranted, which kind
of strategy is suitable, the level of complexity to implement the strat-
egy, and how to calibrate and optimize the operational parameters of
the strategies ought be investigated.
Microscopic traffic simulation is a software tool for modeling a
real-world traffic system, including the road, drivers, and vehicles, in
fine details. In a microsimulation process, the state of an individual
vehicle is continuously or discretely calculated and predicted based
on vehicle–vehicle and vehicle–road interactions. The car-following,
lane-changing, and gap-acceptance models are the basic elements of
a microscopic traffic simulator. Notable examples of microsimulators
include PARAMICS, CORSIM, VISSIM, AIMSUN2, TRANSIM,
and MITSIM (1, 2). With the advancement of computer technology
L. Chu and W. Recker, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of Califor-
nia, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697. H. X. Liu, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Utah State University, 4110 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322.
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board,
No. 1886, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 76–84.
76
and modeling of traffic flow at the microscopic level, microsimula-
tion is becoming a popular and effective tool for many applications,
such as modeling and evaluating ITS, which are not amenable to study
by other means.
The purpose of the study was to use microsimulation as an evalua-
tion tool to evaluate how ITS strategies can reduce nonrecurrent traf-
fic congestion over a network. The evaluated ITS strategies include
incident management, adaptive ramp metering, traveler information,
arterial management, and a combination of those strategies. The
PARAMICS simulation model, with capability enhancement through
its application programming interface (API), was used to model and
quantitatively evaluate these ITS strategies.
This paper is organized as follows. The next section explains
how to model and implement potential ITS strategies that can be
used to solve an identified problem of the target evaluation network
in the PARAMICS simulation environment. The succeeding sec-
tion describes the details of the simulation study, provides the eval-
uation results, and analyzes the performance of each strategy. The
final section concludes the paper.
MODELING AND IMPLEMENTING
ITS STRATEGIES
Study Site and Identified Problem
The study site is located in Orange County, California. As shown in
Figure 1, the network includes a 6-mi section of freeway I-405, a
3-mi section of freeway I-5, a 3-mi section of freeway CA-133, and
the adjacent surface streets. The current network is operating under
coordinated actuated signal control (for arterials) and fixed-time
ramp metering control (for freeways).
On the basis of loop-detector data and floating car data, the
authors found that northbound I-405 is highly congested from 7:30
to 8:30 a.m. due to the large amount of traffic entering I-405 from
CA-133 and Jeffery Drive. The bottleneck generated at Jeffery Drive
often spreads upstream as a backward shockwave, which further
deteriorates traffic conditions of the upstream bottleneck at CA-133.
The historical incident data also show that the merge area of CA-133
and I-405 is the location where incidents occur most frequently. In
this study, it is assumed that a shoulder incident occurs on the merge
area at 7:45 a.m., which causes the speed of passing vehicles to be
10 mph for the first 10 min and 15 mph thereafter.
Chu, Liu, and Recker 77

I-405

Culver
Barranca Pkwy

Jeffery
Alton Pkwy
Sand Canyon

SR-133 Irvine
Center Dr

I-5

FIGURE 1 Overview of the study network.

Potential Solution Strategies correspond to the two adaptive ramp-metering strategies ALINEA
and BOTTLENECK. ALINEA is a local adaptive ramp-metering
If an above-mentioned shoulder incident occurs, the following ITS algorithm, and BOTTLENECK is a coordinated ramp-metering
strategies may be applied to improve the traffic system: incident man- algorithm. Scenario 6 (TIS) is the scenario with the deployment of
agement, adaptive ramp metering, traveler information system (TIS), TIS. Scenario 7 (C-1) incorporates the freeway control with traffic
and arterial management. We designed eight evaluation scenarios information systems. Scenario 8 (C-2) corresponds to the integrated
using these ITS strategies, as shown in Table 1. control that applies freeway ramp metering, arterial management,
Based on data from the California Department of Transportation and TISs together.
(Caltrans), the average incident clearance time is 33 min without any
incident management. This is the baseline scenario, that is, Scenario
1 (IM-33), of this evaluation study. Caltrans data also show the aver-
age clearance time is 26 min with the deployment of the existing Modeling ITS
incident-management policy, and it is expected to be further reduced
to 22 min in the future. Scenarios 2 (IM-26) and 3 (IM-22) corre- Microsimulator: PARAMICS
spond to these two scenarios. These three scenarios are incident-
To evaluate ITS strategies in a microsimulation environment, the
management scenarios only and thus do not include any other ITS
selected microsimulator should have the capability to model these
strategies.
ITS strategies. PARAMICS (Parallel microscopic simulation) was
Scenarios 4 to 8 are designed to incorporate one or several
selected to evaluate ITS strategies in this research.
ITS strategies based on the existing incident-management policy
PARAMICS is a suite of microscopic-simulation tools used to
(26 min of the clearance time). Scenario 4 (RMA) and 5 (RMB)
model the movement and behavior of individual vehicles on urban
and highway road networks (3). PARAMICS is fit to ITS studies due
to its high performance, scalability, and ability to model emerging
TABLE 1 Simulation Scenarios and Their Corresponding
ITS infrastructures, such as loop detectors and VMS. In addition,
Control Strategies
PARAMICS provides users with API, through which users can
ITS Components access its core models and customize and extend many features of
Ramp Signal Traveler Incident
Scenario Metering Control Information Management
the underlying simulation model without having to deal with the
(1) IM-33 Fixed time Actuated N/A 33 mins underlying proprietary source codes.
(2) IM-26 Fixed time Actuated N/A 26 mins PARAMICS has been enhanced through API programming to
(3) IM-22 Fixed time Actuated N/A 22 mins better model both traffic conditions in the real world and ITS
(4) RMA ALINEA Actuated N/A 26 mins strategies (4). Figure 2 shows the framework of our capability-
(5) RMB BOTTLENECK Actuated N/A 26 mins
(6) TIS Fixed time Actuated 20% compliance 26 mins
enhanced PARAMICS simulation environment, in which the plug-
(7) C-1 ALINEA Actuated 20% compliance 26 mins in modules exchange dynamic data with the core PARAMICS
Arterial model and other plug-in modules through the dynamic linking library
(8) C-2 ALINEA Management 20% compliance 26 mins mechanism.
78 Transportation Research Record 1886

Basic Modules:
occurrence, incident detection-and-response time, and incident
Ramp Actuated duration. The incident duration represents the time from the occur-
Metering Signal
rence to the clearance of an incident. Incident-management scenar-
ios can be modeled by adjusting this parameter.
Dynamic Linking Loop Data The incident detection-and-response time represents the time the
Aggregator traffic agencies take to detect, verify, and respond to the incident by
Path-based

MySQL Database
Routing making and implementing a corresponding traffic management plan.
Commercial Interface This parameter will be used in the implementation of Scenarios 7 and
Paramics Model Functions
MOE
8, in which ITS strategies are activated after the incident is detected
and responded to (assumed to be 5 min in this study).
Probe
Vehicle
Dynamic Linking
Actuated Signal Control

Advanced Modules In the study network, some signals are currently under free mode
and others are under the coordination mode of actuated signal con-
trol. The actuated signal control plug-in is a basic control module
FIGURE 2 Framework of capability-enhanced PARAMICS simulation.
in our enhanced PARAMICS environment. Based on this plug-in,
the actuated signal coordination plug-in was further developed for
Modeling Complicated ITS Strategies controlling those coordinated signals (5).

Complicated ITS strategies can be classified into two types: advanced

control algorithm and integrated control algorithm. An advanced
control algorithm, such as an adaptive ramp-metering algorithm,
responds to traffic change dynamically through communication with
field devices on a real-time basis. Integrated control combines and
coordinates different ITS components. As shown in Figure 3, we take
a hierarchical approach to developing these complicated plug-in mod-
ules. This method provides users more freedom to control simulation
processes and hence overcomes some challenges faced in modeling
different ITS features. As a result, various ITS applications can be eas-
ily tested and evaluated in this capability-enhanced microsimulation
environment.
Adaptive Ramp Metering
Scenarios 4 and 5 apply local adaptive ramp metering and coordi-
nated ramp metering, respectively.
Scenario 4 implements a local adaptive ramp-metering algorithm,
ALINEA (6 ). ALINEA is a local-feedback ramp-metering policy
that attempts to maximize the mainline throughput by maintaining a
desired occupancy on the downstream mainline freeway. For an on
ramp under ALINEA control, its metering rate during time interval
(t, t + ∆t) is calculated as
r(t ) = ~r (t − ∆ t ) + K R 䡠 (O* − O(t )) (1)

Implementation of Evaluation Scenarios where

Incident and Incident Management ∆t = update cycle of ramp metering implementation,
~
r (t − ∆t) = measured metering rate of time interval (t − ∆t, t),
Scenario 1 is the benchmark scenario, in which a shoulder incident O(t) = measured occupancy of time interval (t − ∆t, t) at the
occurs at 7:45 a.m. on northbound I-405 (the merge area of I-405 and downstream detector station,
CA-133). Scenarios 2 and 3 apply incident management to relieve KR = regulator parameter used for adjusting the constant
the congestion caused by the incident. disturbances of the feedback control, and
The authors developed an incident plug-in module to model the O* = desired occupancy at the downstream detector station.
shoulder incident and incident management. The plug-in has four
control parameters: the location of the incident, the time of incident The coordinated ramp-metering algorithm used in this research is
BOTTLENECK, applied in Seattle, Washington (7). Basically, there
are three components in the algorithm: a local algorithm computing
Signal local-level metering rates based on local conditions, a coordination
Provided algorithm computing system-level metering rates based on system-
API Library Ramp
Control capacity constraints, and adjustment to the metering rates based on
Modules Routing local ramp conditions. The original BOTTLENECK algorithm uses
Loop … occupancy control as its local metering algorithm. In this study, we
Basic replace its native local-control algorithm with ALINEA because
Modules CORBA
Data ALINEA is easier to calibrate and performs better than occupancy
Database
Handling control, as shown in our previous research (8).
XML …
Adaptive Signal Control
Advanced Traveler Information Systems
Ramp Metering Algorithms
Modules
Integrated Control Scenario 6 considers the involvement of all kinds of traveler-
information systems, including VMS routing and all other informa-
FIGURE 3 The hierarchical API development tion systems from information agencies (without any traffic-control
approach. supports). PARAMICS can simulate this scenario by using dynamic
Chu, Liu, and Recker 79

feedback assignment, in which a traveler’s route choice is calculated

Calibration data preparation
based on instantaneous traffic information. The compliance rate is
the control parameter for this scenario.
Basic data input/network coding

Arterial Management
Reference O-D from planning model
Arterial management aims to change the traffic signal timing along
diversion routes to accommodate diverting traffic on arterials. The Route choice adjustment
corresponding real-world actuated signal control system, which is
not an adaptive system, works only for pretime timing plans. Conse- Total O-D estimation
quently, a pretimed timing plan needs to be prepared for the involved
signals based on estimated traffic volumes under the incident condi- Reconstruction of time-
tion. SYNCHRO, a software package for modeling and optimizing dependent O-D demands
traffic signal timings, is used to optimize signal control offline along
diversion routes during the incident period. The optimized signal-
timing plans will be applied when the integrated control strategy is Model fine-tuning
activated because of an incident.

N Volume, travel
Combination time match?
Y
Both Scenarios 7 and 8 integrate traffic control and traffic information.
Scenario 7 incorporates freeway control with traffic information sys- Overall model
tems. In this scenario, the freeway agency responds to the incident validation/evaluation
via VMS and ramp metering, but the arterial traffic agency does not
coordinate with the freeway control. FIGURE 4 Flowchart of calibration
Scenario 8 implements the so-called integrated control or corri- procedure.
dor control, which involves the coordination of the freeway traffic-
control system and the arterial traffic management system in order
to support vehicle rerouting through the traffic information system. get headway and driver reaction time, and local parameters, such as
The detailed integrated-control strategy applied here is described as headway factors and signposting settings of important freeway links.
follows: 5 min after the incident occurs on the freeway, the freeway The calibration results showed that simulated traffic counts and
agency shows the diversion messages on VMSs and applies the adap- section travel-time data correspond well to the measurements and
tive ramp-metering algorithm ALINEA; the arterial agency activates accurately capture the congestion patterns of the target network. As
the new signal timing along diversion routes. illustrated in Figure 5, the mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE)
of traffic counts at selected measurement locations range from 5.8%
to 8.7%. As Figure 6 shows, the simulated section travel time from
SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS the Irvine Center Drive junction to the Culver Drive junction for
northbound I-405 has a MAPE of 8.5% throughout the simulation
Calibration of Simulation Model period (9).
The simulation model of the study network was built based on aerial
photos, road geometry, ITS infrastructure, traffic signal control and Performance Measures
ramp-metering data obtained from Caltrans and the city of Irvine.
The zone structure of the network was obtained from the Orange The following measures of effectiveness (MOEs) employ the evalu-
County Transportation Authority model. ation of the effectiveness of each evaluated scenario in this paper. A
Field observations vary from day to day due to the stochastic nature performance measure plug-in was developed and used for computing,
of traffic. Consequently, the calibration objective is to reconstruct the gathering, and reporting these measures.
typical real-world traffic variation in the PARAMICS simulation. The
calibration process was based on the assumptions of normally dis-
tributed drivers’ behavior parameters (i.e., aggressiveness and aware- MOE 1: System Efficiency Measure
ness) and stochastic assignment with 5% perturbation. Stochastic
assignment in PARAMICS assumes that different drivers perceive The system efficiency measure used here is vehicle hours traveled
different costs from a decision node to the destination. The perceived (VHT). VHT is defined as follows:
cost is calculated based on the given perturbation factor, with a ran-
 i, j k 
N
dom number assigned to the vehicle, and the shortest perceived route
 ∑ i, j 
is chosen at the decision node. T
The calibration of a simulation model ultimately requires compar- VHT = ∑ Di , j 䡠  k =1  (2)
∀i , j  Ni , j 
ing simulated data with field-observed traffic data. The flowchart of
the model calibration is shown in Figure 4. The aggregated traffic-
where
volume and travel-time data were used to adjust route choice, esti-
mate the dynamic origin–destination (O-D) matrix, and fine-tune Ni,j = total number of vehicles that actually traveled between
model parameters, including global parameters, such as the mean tar- origin i and destination j,
80 Transportation Research Record 1886

900 250
750
200
5-min volume

5-min volume
600
150
450
100
300
150 50 simulated observed
simulated observed
0 0
6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM
(a) (b)

900 900

750 750

5-min volume
5-min volume

600 600

450 450
300 300
150 simulated observed 150 simulated observed
0 0
6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM
(c) (d)

900 900
750 750
5-min volume

5-min volume

600 600
450 450
300 300
150 simulated observed 150 simulated observed
0 0
6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM
(e) (f)

900 200
750 160
5-min volume

5-min volume

600
120
450
80
300
150 40
simulated observed simulated observed
0 0
6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM 6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM
(g) (h)

FIGURE 5 Traffic counts calibration (5-min volume) at major freeway measurement locations: (a) I-405N mainline at post
mile 0.93, (b) I-405N on-ramp at post mile 1.93, (c) I-405N mainline at post mile 3.04, (d) I-405N mainline at post mile
3.86, (e) I-405N mainline at post mile 5.55, (f ) I-405S mainline at post mile 3.31, (g) I-5N mainline at post mile 22.2,
and ( h) I-133S mainline at post mile 9.37.
Chu, Liu, and Recker 81

600

500

Travel time (sec)

400

300

200

100
simulated observed
0
6:00 AM 7:00 AM 8:00 AM 9:00 AM 10:00 AM

FIGURE 6 Observed and simulated travel time for northbound I-405 from
post mile 0.93 to 5.55.

Di,j = travel demand from origin i to destination j for the whole routes; and determine vehicle behaviors as the vehicles move through
simulation time period, and the network. Therefore, the average results of several simulation
T i,jk = travel time of the kth vehicle that traveled between origin i runs using different seed numbers can reflect the traffic condition of
and destination j. a specific scenario.
The flowchart to determine the number of runs is shown in Fig-
ure 7. Nine simulation runs were executed first, and then the number
MOE 2: System Reliability Measure of required runs (N) were calculated:
The system reliability measure here is the average standard deviation δ 
2

of O–D travel times (std_ODTT) of the whole simulation period. N =  tα 2 䡠  ( 4)
 µ 䡠 ⑀
std_ODTT is calculated as the weighted standard deviation of the
average travel times of all O–D pairs for the whole study period:
where
∑ [std(T ) 䡠 N ]
∀i , j
i, j i, j µ and δ = mean and standard deviation of a MOE based on the
std_ODTT = (3) already-conducted simulation runs,
∑N ∀i , j
i, j ⑀ = allowable error specified as a fraction of the mean µ, and
tα/2 = the critical value of the t-distribution at the significance
where std(Ti,j) is the standard deviation of the average O-D travel level α.
time from origin i to destination j.

MOE 3: Freeway Efficiency Measure Start

The freeway efficiency measure uses two sets of data:

Original nine runs
• Average mainline travel speed of the entire simulation period
(AMTS) and
• Average mainline travel speed during the congestion period Calculating the mean and ITS std
(peak_AMTS). of each performance measure

Calculating the required # of runs Additional one

MOE 4: On-Ramp Efficiency Measure
for each performance measure simulation run
The on-ramp efficiency measure consists of the following information:

• Total on-ramp delay (TOD) and Is current # of N

• Time percentage of the on-ramp queue spill back to the local runs enough?
streets (POQS).
Y

Determination of Number of Simulation Runs End

PARAMICS is a stochastic simulation model that relies on random FIGURE 7 Flowchart of determination of number of
numbers to release vehicles; assign vehicle types, destinations, and simulation runs.
82 Transportation Research Record 1886

This calculation needs to be done for all MOEs of interest. The high-
est value is the required number of runs. If the current number of
runs is larger than the required number of runs, the simulation of this
scenario is ended. Otherwise, one additional run is performed, and
then the required number of runs needs to be recalculated.
northbound I-405. The decrease in the incident duration from 33 to
26 min can statistically improve VHT at the 85% confidence inter-
val. When the incident duration is dropped from 33 to 22 min, VHT
is improved significantly (at the 99% confidence interval).

Adaptive Ramp Metering

Evaluation Results
The simulation time period for all eight scenarios was the morning
peak hours from 5:45 to 10:00 a.m. The first 15 min of each simula-
tion run are treated as the warm-up period. All control scenarios were
compared with the no-incident-management scenario (Scenario 1).
We selected two measures, VHT and AMTS, for the calculation of
the required number of runs. Based on multiple runs, the resulting
value of each MOE for a scenario is equal to the average of all
simulation runs.
Overall Performance
The overall performance measures are shown in Table 2. Because
VHT is the most important measure of the evaluation, we conducted
t-tests to statistically compare the VHTs of any two scenarios.
Table 3 shows the confidence intervals of the comparisons. The higher
a confidence interval is, the more significant the VHT difference of
the two scenarios is.
The performance of northbound freeway I-405, where the inci-
dent happened, is shown in Table 4. The congestion period was
defined as from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. based on the traffic condition of
the benchmark scenario.
The evaluation results show that all ITS strategies have positive
effects on the improvement of network performance. The more ITS
components that are involved, the more benefits can be obtained.
Incident Management
Incident management (Scenarios 2 and 3) can improve system per-
formance because it increases the average mainline travel speed on
Theoretically, adaptive ramp metering benefits the traffic system
through adaptively adjusting metering rate based on the traffic con-
ditions of the mainline freeway. Comparing Scenarios 4 (ALIENA)
and 5 (BOTTLENECK) with Scenario 2 shows that the application
of adaptive ramp metering improved system performance. How-
ever, the performance improvement was not very significant. Both
ALINEA and BOTTLENECK could not improve VHT or AMTS
significantly. This explains that, if the congestion becomes severe,
the target level of service could not be maintained by using ramp
metering and the effectiveness of ramp control is marginal.
Comparing the two adaptive ramp-metering algorithms shows
that BOTTLENECK performed slightly better than ALINEA from
the perspective of VHT. The reason is that BOTTLENECK is a
coordinated algorithm that can respond to not only the local con-
gestion but also to the congestion that appeared in a coordinated
area. ALINEA performed better than BOTTLENECK under the
conditions of less TOD and less POQS. The coordination feature of
BOTTLENECK causes the highest total on-ramp delay.
Traveler Information
Scenario 6 involves all kinds of traveler-information systems. We
studied how the variation in compliance rate influences system per-
formance. As Figure 8 shows, when the compliance rate is higher
than 15% to 20%, the savings in VHT reaches a stable maximum
(i.e., 5.3%). Work of other researchers indicates that 20% is regarded
as an optimal level for the traveler information provision (10). Our
research validates their results. We used a 20% compliance rate in
Scenarios 6 to 8 for the comparison with other scenarios.
Based on VHT, std_ODTT, AMTS, and peak_AMTS, Scenario 6
had greater benefits than adaptive ramp-metering algorithms (Sce-

TABLE 2 Overall Performance of Each Strategy

VHT Saving Reliability
Scenario VHT (%) std_ODTT Increase (%)
(1) IM-33 12837 139.6
(2) IM-26 12703 1.0 130.9 6.3
(3) IM-22 12589 1.9 121.7 12.8
(4) RMA 12533 2.4 121.3 13.2
(5) RMB 12511 2.5 116.5 16.6
(6) TIS 12031 6.3 82.3 41.1
(7) C-1 11877 7.5 76.8 45.0
(8) C-2 11782 8.2 79.7 42.9

TABLE 3 Confidence Intervals of VHT Difference of Any Two Scenarios

IM-33 IM-26 IM-22 RMA RMB TIS C-1 C-2
(1) IM-33 • 0.85 0.99 0.995 0.9995 0.9995 0.9995 0.9995
(2) IM-26 • 0.85 0.9 0.95 0.9995 0.9995 0.9995
(3) IM-22 • 0.7 0.8 0.9995 0.9995 0.9995
(4) RMA • 0.6 0.9995 0.9995 0.9995
(5) RMB • 0.9995 0.9995 0.9995
(6) TIS • 0.995 0.999
(7) C-1 • 0.975
(8) C-2 •
Chu, Liu, and Recker 83

TABLE 4 Performance of Northbound Freeway I-405

AMTS AMTS peak_AMTS Increase of TOD POQS
Scenario (mph) Increase (%) (mph) peak_AMTS (%) (h) (%)
(1) IM-33 50.5 38.6 42.8 1.9
(2) IM-26 51.4 1.7 39.9 3.4 42.0 2.0
(3) IM-22 51.5 1.9 40.2 4.3 40.9 1.8
(4) RMA 51.7 2.4 40.6 5.4 47.6 1.1
(5) RMB 51.8 2.6 40.5 5.0 73.4 2.1
(6) TIS 54.1 7.1 43.8 13.5 51.8 2.7
(7) C-1 54.7 8.3 45.2 17.3 41.0 1.0
(8) C-2 54.6 8.2 44.9 16.4 43.3 1.2

narios 4 and 5) and than the improved incident management (Sce-
nario 3). The reason for this is the network topology: one major free-
way segment (I-405) with two parallel arterial streets, which allow
the real-time traveler-information systems divert traffic from the
congested freeway to arterial streets. From the perspective of on-
ramp efficiency, TOD and POQS of this scenario are high because
there is no ramp-metering support from the freeway agency.
Combination
this study does not mean that coordination with the arterial-traffic
agency is not important. If the arterial signal system is a pretimed
system and the default signal timing does not favor the traffic di-
version, the arterial management will be especially important for
integrated control.
As a result, the integrated-control scenario (i.e., Scenario 8) showed
the best performance among all scenarios. Because that scenario is
hard to implement, the integrated control without involvement of the
arterial agency (i.e., Scenario 7) can be a good alternative.

Scenarios 7 and 8 integrated traveler information with freeway traf-
fic control. In the real world, institutional barriers may hamper coor-
dination between different traffic agencies. Scenario 7 implemented
the scenario in which only the freeway agency responded to the inci-
dent via the VMS routing and adaptive ramp metering (i.e., ALINEA).
Scenario 8 implemented the integrated control in which traffic-
signal control and ramp metering were also adjusted to facilitate the
diversion of traffic.
Compared with Scenario 6, Scenarios 7 and 8 significantly im-
proved VHT. Comparing Scenarios 7 and 8, the VHT of Scenario 8
improved at a 97.5% confidence interval. Using other MOEs, we
further compared the two scenarios statistically at a 90% confidence
interval. The two scenarios had comparable performance in respect
to std_ODTT, AMTS, and peak_AMTS. But Scenario 8 was found
to introduce more on-ramp delays in respect to TOD and POQS.
The reason for the good performance of Scenario 7 is that the
traffic signal system in the study network was an actuated signal
system. This signal system can try its best to accommodate the di-
version traffic, even without arterial management. The result from
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This paper presents a microsimulation method to evaluate the effec-
tiveness of a number of potential ITS strategies under a nonrecurrent-
incident scenario. The evaluated ITS strategies include incident
management, adaptive ramp metering, traveler-information systems,
arterial management, and a combination of those strategies. These
ITS strategies were implemented and evaluated in the capability-
enhanced PARAMICS environment developed by integrating various
plug-in modules through API programming to model the current traf-
fic conditions and various potential ITS strategies. Performance mea-
sures include the efficiency of the overall system, mainline freeway,
on ramp, and reliability of the network.
Based on simulation results, all ITS strategies have positive effects
on network performance. The detailed findings can be summarized
briefly as follows:
• The most important ITS strategy to relieve traffic congestion
caused by an incident is to provide traffic information.

5
VHT Saving (%)

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Compliance Rate (%)

FIGURE 8 VHT savings under different compliance rates of traveler-

information systems.
84
• Adaptive ramp metering cannot improve system performance
effectively under the incident scenario.
• Fast incident management is important, but it does not benefit
the system significantly by itself. It needs to be applied with other
ITS strategies, especially traveler-information systems.
• The proper combination of ITS strategies yields greater benefits.
• If the integrated control is hard to implement practically and the
arterial signal system is technically advanced, the integrated control
without the involvement of the arterial agency can still work well.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was funded by the California Department of Trans-
portation. The authors thank Michael McNally and Jun-Seok Oh
of the University of California, Irvine, for their valuable input to
this paper. Scott Aitken and Ewan Speirs of Quadstone in Scotland
provided invaluable technical support in the application of the
PARAMICS model. Their continuous collaboration to the project
greatly facilitated the work.
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Publication of this paper sponsored by Intelligent Transportation Systems
Committee.