Multiclass freeway traffic: Model Predictive Control and microscopic simulation

In this paper a model predictive control scheme is defined, where freeway traffic is controlled by ramp metering strategies and by limiting vehicle speed using variable message signs. The prediction model defined for representing the system dynamic behaviour in a freeway stretch takes into account two different classes of vehicles (basically, cars and trucks). In this model, based on classical macroscopic traffic theory, the interference between the two vehicle classes is represented by a new definition of the steady-state relation between speed and density. The simulation model adopted in the evaluation of the control scheme is a novel microscopic model which, again, represents the two classes of vehicles separately.