A Novel Ramp Metering Approach Based on Machine Learning and Historical Data

Abstract: The random nature of traffic conditions on freeways can cause excessive congestions and irregularities in the traffic flow. Ramp metering is a proven effective method to maintain freeway efficiency under various traffic conditions. Creating a reliable and practical ramp metering algorithm that considers both critical traffic measures and historical data is still a challenging problem. In this study we use machine learning approaches to develop a novel real-time prediction model for ramp metering. We evaluate the potentials of our approach in providing promising results by comparing it with a baseline traffic-responsive ramp metering algorithm.