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Traffic growth and limited roadway capacity decrease traveler mobility and increase traffic congestion and fuel consumption. Traffic managers employ various control techniques to mitigate the aforementioned problems. One well-known network-wide control strategy is perimeter control (or gating). Perimeter control is based on the Network Fundamental Diagram (NFD). NFD-based perimeter control techniques are used to solve congestion problems in transportation networks. One well-known method used in the literature is Proportional Integral Control (PIC). PIC solves the congestion problem, but suffers from sensitivity to parameter tuning and the need for model linearization. A weather-tuned perimeter control (WTPC) and a jam density-tuned perimeter controller (JTPC) were developed to cope with parameter sensitivity for different weather conditions and jam densities, respectively. In an attempt to overcome PIC problems, a sliding mode controller (SMC) was developed. SMC does not require model linearization and parameter tuning. It is also robust to varying demand patterns. SMC computes the flow that needs to enter a protected network and converts it to corresponding traffic signal timings to achieve the desired control strategies. Another approach to implementing the sliding mode controller is to control vehicle speeds on the links entering the protected network. Coupling speed harmonization (SH) with sliding mode control (SMC), an SMC-SH was developed and implemented in the INTEGRATION microscopic traffic simulator. The mentioned controllers are all tested on a mid-size grid network replicating downtown Washington DC. SMC-SH improved different performance metrics on the whole grid network compared to the no control case. Specifically, it improved average travel time, total delay, stopped delay, fuel consumption, CO2 emissions by 17.27%, 18.18%, 12.76%, 5.91%, and 7.04%, respectively. In order to test the SMC-SH on a real large-scale network, the downtown Los Angeles (LA) network is used. The LA network is known for its congested freeways, so a development of a Freeway-SMC-SH controller is performed and tested. It shows good results in improving the performance not only of freeways, but also the overall LA network performance. Particularly, the network-wide average travel time, total delay, stopped delay, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions improved with respect to the no control case by 12.17%, 20.67%, 39.58%, 2.6%, and 3.3%, respectively. An identification of a homogeneously congested area is needed to apply SMC-SH on LA roads (not freeways). The geographical self organizing maps (GeoSOM) clustering algorithm is applied and tested on the LA network. The clustering goal is to identify a geographically connected region with small density variance. GeoSOM is able to achieve that objective with better performance than the state-of-the-art Kmeans and DBSCAN clustering algorithms. The enhancements reached up to 15.15% for quantization error, 61.05% for spacial quantization error, and 43.96% for variance. Finally, the SMC-SH is tested on the protected region of the LA network identified by the GeoSOM algorithm. SMC-SH succeeds in improving network-wide vehicle travel time, total delay, stopped delay, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 6.25%, 9.4%, 16.47%, 1.7%, and 2.19%, respectively. / Doctor of Philosophy / Road congestion causes vehicular delays and increases travel time and fuel consumption. The goal of the research is to prevent or relieve traffic congestion in a network. That region that we attempt to address is termed the congested network or the protected network (PN). One way to solve the traffic jam problem is to set up gates on the PN borders so that the number of vehicles that enter the network is limited, and consequently traffic jams do not occur. However, the number of vehicles should not be limited too much to avoid overcrowding outside the PN. The developed controller calculates the right number of cars that should enter the network in order to improve the performance inside and outside the PN. The first way to apply the controller commands is to adjust traffic signal timings at the traffic signals located along the PN border. The second way (called SMC-SH) is to adjust the speed of the vehicles entering the network through these gates. In the first part of the work, all the controllers are implemented and tested in a mid-size grid network. In the second part of the work, the goal is to implement the controller on the real large-scale Los Angeles (LA) network. Since the LA network suffers from congestion on freeways, a freeway controller is developed and tested. It does not only succeed in reducing traffic jams on freeways, but also enhances the overall LA network traffic performance. In order to apply the SMC-SH controller on the LA network, we identify homogeneously congested regions. GeoSOM clustering is implemented to achieve this goal and compared to other clustering methods, and is shown to outperform them. Finally, the SMC-SH controller is tested on the congested region of LA, and succeeds in reducing travel time, total delay, and fuel consumption for the LA network.

This Master's Thesis deals with the possibilities for the practical usage of traffic simulations as tools for seeking solutions to various kinds of problems such as road traffic flow, the environmental impact of traffic, etc. It contains a description of the basic terms in the area of traffic simulation models, advantages of their practical usage, and furthermore, it describes the basic general methods of and attitudes to the most commonly used traffic simulations. In the second part, the analysis and the design of an original micro traffic simulator are included. Finally, the traffic simulator is implemented and tested on a real traffic situation.

The presented thesis deals with lane merging at lane drops. The theory of traffic flow is briefly introduced and put into the perspective of lane merging. Forming of queues at lane drops, the capacity drop and traffic flow behaviour at lane merging is explained. A review of existing measures at lane drops at work zones and elsewhere is provided. Measurements of traffic flow from three different locations are presented. The locations are introduced, the methods used for analysis of the data are explained and the results are provided and discussed. The capacity drop is confirmed and the first proof of concept of the later introduced metering system is presented. The behaviour of the merging drivers was found to have a significant influence on the merging capacity during congestion. Further, an overview of existing applications of traffic light in traffic flow control is provided and ramp metering and mainstream metering is explained. The new metering system for lane drops is presented including several possible modifications and extensions. Finally, the proposed metering system is tested in microsimulation software Aimsun. The simulations further confirm the viability of such systems. It brings significant capacity improvements and consequently even greater improvements of delays and travel times due to shorter queues.