A Novel Ramp Metering Approach Based on Machine Learning and Historical Data

Abstract

The random nature of traffic conditions on freeways can cause excessive congestion and irregularities in the traffic flow. Ramp metering is a proven effective method to maintain freeway efficiency under various traffic conditions. Creating a reliable and practical ramp metering algorithm that considers both critical traffic measures and historical data is still a challenging problem. In this study we use simple machine learning approaches to develop a novel real-time ramp metering algorithm. The proposed algorithm is computationally simple and has minimal data requirements, which makes it practical for real-world applications. We conduct a simulation study to evaluate and compare the proposed approach with an existing traffic-responsive ramp metering algorithm.