Abstract
Today freeway is experiencing a severe congestion with incoming or outgoing traffic through freeway ramps during the peak periods. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify the traffic characteristics, analyze the relationships between the traffic characteristics and finally construct the delay predictive models on the rap junctions of freeway with 70mph speed limit. From the traffic analyses, and model construction and verification for delay prediction on the ramp junctions of freeway, the following results were obtained : ⅰ) Traffic flow showed a big difference depending on the time periods. Especially, more traffic flows were concentrated on the freeway junctions in the morning peak period. ⅱ) The occupancy also showed a big difference depending on the time periods, and the downstream occupancy(Od) was especially shown to have a higher explanatory power for the delay predictive model construction on the ramp junctions of freeway. ⅲ) The delay-occupancy curve showed a remarkable shift based on the occupancies observed : O$\_$d/〈9% and O$\_$d/$\geq$9%. Especially, volume and occupancy were shown to be highly explanatory for delay prediction on the ramp junctions of freeway under O$\_$d/$\geq$9%, but lowly for delay prediction on the ramp junctions of freeway under O$\_$d/〈9%. Rather, the driver characteristics or transportation conditions around the freeway were thought to be a little higher explanatory for the delay prediction under O$\_$d/〈9%. ⅳ) Integrated delay predictive models showed a higher explanatory power in the morning peak period, but a lower explanatory power in the non-peak periods.
