Traffic Microsimulation Study to Evaluate Freeway Exit Ramps Capacity

Growing traffic in urban and suburban areas has resulted in a demand for freeway exit ramps with higher capacity in order to avoid congestion. The main objective of the paper was to elaborate recommendations about the best exit ramp layout according to different parameters by evaluating capacity. Seven different diverge layouts were analyzed using traffic microsimulation. The average delay of the vehicles among their exit path was calculated on each diverge layout; and the capacity was obtained as the diverging flow from which the average delay grew exponentially. The capacity of each diverge layout varied from 1600 to 2000 vehicles per hour in one-lane exit ramp. The values for two-lane exit ramp were included on the interval [2000, 4400] vehicles per hour. (C) 2011Published by Elsevier Ltd.