Simulating Traffic Spillback of the Expressway Weaving Area Based on Cellular Automata

Urban expressways are linked tightly with local surface roads through ramps, and traffic flows at weaving areas are often complex and chaotic. Therefore traffic management of weaving area is very meaningful to the improvement of expressway capacity and the enhancement of traffic safety. Based on the characteristics of drivers, in the paper a cellular automata model is developed to simulate the driving behaviors at weaving areas of urban expressway. Then we analyze the impact of different pavement marking patterns on the operating condition of traffic flow, which provides useful suggestions for the practice of traffic management of expressway weaving area.