Long-Distance-Commuter (LDC) Lane: A New Concept for Freeway Traffic Management

Abstract

Many freeways connect two major cities (e.g., Gold Coast to Brisbane) in Australia. A great portion of commuters travel between these two cities whereas the number of commuters taking the on-ramps and off-ramps in between is comparatively small. Enlightened by this observation, we propose a novel and practical concept for freeway traffic management: long-distance-commuter (LDC) lane. The LDC lane is a dedicated lane that only commuters traveling between the two major cities can use. Since there is no or only minor disturbance from forced lane-changing of vehicles from other lanes, the LDC lane admits a much higher capacity. Our preliminary case study based on the freeway between Gold Coast and Brisbane demonstrates that using the LDC lane significantly increases the average speed as well as overall capacity.