Ramp metering impact on urban corridor traffic: Field results

Field trial results when applying a particular ramp metering strategy to an urban corridor network (Corridor Périphérique in Paris) including a motorway, a parallel arterial, and connecting radial streets are reported. The impact of ramp metering on corridor traffic is studied by comparative evaluation of several performance indices in the cases with and without control. The main finding of the field trial is that application of an efficient ramp metering strategy considerably improves traffic conditions not only on the motorway but also on the parallel arterial and on the whole corridor network. This improvement is found to be even more accentuated in presence of nonrecurrent congestion caused by traffic incidents.