DIPLOMAT

Project details

Duration

09.2016-08.2020

Sponsor

external page SNSF Swiss National Science Foundation

Partner

external page LUTS Urban Transport Systems Laboratory, EPFL

Staff

Dr. M. Menendez and I. Dakic

Summary

Multimodal urban cities are complex systems where different modes of transportation compete and share road infrastructure for serving transport demands. These modes interact with each other, creating conflicts at different road infrastructure levels. While there is a vast and well-established literature towards understanding and mitigating vehicular congestion in single-mode networks, the knowledge on multimodal networks with passenger mobility consideration is in its infancy. The topic deserves further research efforts. This research project aims to develop novel modeling and optimization tools, for controlling efficient and sustainable multimodal transportation systems.

To understand the physics of urban mobility, traffic dynamics of multimodal urban networks need to be analyzed under many different scenarios including various network properties. To this end, an aggregated model for multimodal systems, following the concept of the three-dimensional bi-modal macroscopic fundamental diagram (3D-MFD), can be used to investigate the effects of network topology and configuration, road space allocation and traffic signal control in multimodal traffic performance. This model will be validated through field data collected form a real network of Geneva, as well as through scenario and numerical analysis of the simulated networks of Zurich and San Francisco, and some abstract networks with typical urban features. The developed modeling framework will connect multimodal traffic performance to different transport management strategies.

Provided with the developed modeling tool, smart control approaches on space allocation and traffic signal control will be proposed, tested, and optimized. At network level, perimeter flow control algorithms, which integrate the treatment of public transport priority, will be developed to improve the global multimodal performance. In addition, and to realize the network-level control actions, we will also focus on the local level to determine where and how to control traffic signals. For this purpose, three control strategies will be investigated: (i) dynamic space allocation among different usages (i.e., modes) and lane restriction, with an objective to maximize traffic throughout of the dedicated lanes, (ii) advanced pre-signal controls integrating public transport signal priority, to improve the efficiency of the pre-signal strategies, and (iii) advanced pre-signal control with the presence of connected vehicles, to identify optimal control measures under congested conditions and a large scale application scheme.

The expected outcomes of this project are significant and timely. We will develop modeling and optimization approaches for understanding and managing the overall performance of complex multimodal transportation systems. Furthermore, the proposed research will provide valuable pragmatic tools that will allow us to implement some of the suggested approaches in the real world. Both, policy makers and practitioners should be able to utilize these quantitative tools to analyze, evaluate, and proposed different traffic management strategies that address the actual needs of any given network. A promising field implementation of the perimeter flow control may already be foreseen for the city of Geneva. Ultimately, this projects aims at the promotion of multimodality and sustainable mobility in urban transportation systems for everybody.

Publications