TRAFFIC MICROSIMULATION APPROACH TO PLAN, EVALUATE, AND DESIGN TOLL STATIONS

Abstract A toll station should have adequate capacity to safely and effectively process the anticipated traffic without excessive queues and delays. This paper presented a proposed microscopic traffic simulation model for design, assessment, and operational analysis of toll stations. The proposed microscopic approach has the potential of providing the traffic engineers and decision makers with a good idea about the delay savings due to the operational changes of toll stations and to assign the appropriate lane staffing plan to efficiently accommodate the incoming design traffic. The proposed model incorporates the complex task of modeling the driver behavior at toll stations as well as the stochastic nature of traffic arrival and toll collection time. The developed simulation model was used to analyze different scenarios. Results showed that the drop in lane capacity associated with manual toll collection has an adverse impact on traffic delays and queues. Results showed that volume per toll lane and method of payment significantly affect the average delay and maximum queue lengths of a toll station. Recommendations on number of toll booths are presented in order to process peak traffic hours without excessive delay times or long queues.