Integrated Urban Traffic Control for the Reduction of Travel Delays and Emissions

Refining transportation mobility and improving the living environment are two important issues that need to be addressed in urban traffic. To reduce traffic delays and traffic emissions for urban traffic networks, this paper first proposes an integrated macroscopic traffic model that integrates a macroscopic urban traffic flow model with a microscopic traffic emission model for individual vehicles. This integrated model is able to predict the traffic flow states and the emissions released by every vehicle at different operational conditions, i.e., the speed and the acceleration. Then, model predictive control (MPC) is applied to control urban traffic networks based on this integrated traffic model, aiming at reducing both travel delays and traffic emissions of different gases. Finally, simulations are performed to assess this multiobjective control approach. The obtained simulation results illustrate the control effects of the model predictive controller.