Study On The Capacity And Lane Configuration Strategy Of Expressway Toll Station

Toll station as an important part of the expressway, its capacity restricts the operation efficiency of expressway. Due to the charging delay, making it a bottleneck of highway traffic. The promotion of electronic toll collection (ETC) technology and the application of tandem toll collection (TTC) effectively alleviate this situation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how to improve the capacity and service level of toll stations under existing conditions, and to discuss the rational allocation and optimization problems of lanes.According to the design specification of toll station and the results of field investigation,this paper analyzes traffic flow characteristics in different types of lanes and the layout of the toll plaza in detail, then the arrival law and the distribution of service time and departure time of vehicles are determined. At the same time, considering the influence of vehicle variance on the traffic flow, the vehicle type of the toll station is classified reasonably,On this foundation, reference value of the toll station PCE is given with a time-consuming method. In order to meet the traffic characteristics of the actual toll station, the calculation model of ETC channel and TTC channel capacity is constructed by theoretical analysis method, the above model combines the traffic characteristics of the vehicle through the toll station, traffic behavior and other factors, which can provide reference for the expansion of toll stations.For the toll station system capacity, this paper chooses the M/G/1 queuing model to solve the problem. Considering the influence of ETC lane speed limit and lane position on the capacity of toll station system, the VISSIM simulation model is established based on the calibration parameters of field survey data. The ETC usage rate, ETC traffic speed, ETC lane position and traffic flow are used as input variables to design the simulation scheme of toll station capacity under different conditions. The simulation results were compared and analyzed to verify the applicability of the queuing model. At the same time, the toll station service level is divided reasonably and the best way to configure ETC lane is determined,which provides the theoretical basis for the design and operation management of the toll station.Aiming at the problem of toll station lane configuration, a nonlinear integer programming model is constructed based on toll station operating cost and driver queuing cost minimization, and the optimum channel opening scheme for different time traffic is obtained. However, taking into account the influencing factors of future traffic growth, the effective run time of the channel opening scheme is verified by the sensitivity analysis of vehicles waiting time of the toll station. Finally, we obtain a long-term operation scheme of toll station by converting the MTC users to ETC users gradually, which meets the predetermined service level of each channel, then the optimal configuration of the lane is achieved.