JP4764753B2 - Traffic jam mitigation device and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a traffic jam alleviating apparatus and method for realizing traffic jam mitigation by providing information to a driver using a traffic flow sensor and an information providing device.

  Conventionally, many proposals have been made as means for alleviating chronic traffic congestion on expressways and automobile-only roads (for example, Non-Patent Document 1 and Patent Documents 1 to 4).

  Non-Patent Document 1 “Measures for traffic congestion on highways” discloses conventional measures for traffic congestion.

Patent Documents 1 and 2 are examples of an automatic toll collection system (ETC) for alleviating congestion at toll road tollgates.
The “toll road toll collection system” disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a layout 52 in FIG. 8, in which 52 is a lane, 51 is a vehicle entering the lane, 53 is an in-vehicle device mounted on the vehicle, 54 is a vehicle type identification device, 55 Is a road device (antenna), 56 is a control device that controls transmission and reception of signals between the road device (antenna) and the vehicle-mounted device, 57 is an automatic ticket issuing machine, 58 is a start detection device, and 56b is data from the control device. A data processing device 56c is a center computer.

  In this toll collection system, when the vehicle 51 enters, the vehicle type is detected and discriminated by the vehicle type discriminating device 54, and is recorded in the memory of the in-vehicle device 53 by wireless communication between the road device (antenna) 55 and the in-vehicle device 53. ID information etc. is read and a pass ticket is automatically issued.

  [Patent Document 2] “Toll Road Toll Collection Device” includes an in-vehicle communication unit and an IC card as in-vehicle devices, a wireless communication device, a wireless communication antenna, an image processing device, a camera, and a blocking device as toll-side devices. Machine, road-to-vehicle communication monitoring device, fee processing device, IC card settlement machine, vehicle detection device, etc., and automatically collects toll gates on toll roads such as expressways.

  Patent Documents 3 and 4 are examples of systems that relieve congestion on highways and automobile roads.

The “traffic volume control system” of Patent Document 3 is a system shown in FIG. 9 in which the number of traveling vehicles flowing into and out of the service area or the parking area and the number of traveling vehicles flowing into and out of the interchange are input as information inputs. Processing is performed by the processing device 61, and based on this, traffic information is notified to the driver of the traveling vehicle.
That is, in this system, the number of traveling vehicles flowing into the service area or parking area and the number of traveling vehicles flowing into and out of the interchange are calculated as information inputs, and the driver is required to limit the speed and change lanes. indicate.

  Patent Document 4 “Congestion Judgment Method, Congestion Judgment System, Congestion Judgment Device, and Storage Medium” measures the vehicle space occupancy rate and the space average speed using an image of a road, and measures the measured space occupancy. The traffic jam is determined depending on whether the correlation between the rate and the spatial average speed is included in the correlation distribution region of the spatial occupancy and the spatial average speed.

Takashi Oguchi, “Traffic congestion countermeasures on expressways”, Traffic Engineering, Vol. 33 No. 6 1998

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-217041, “Toll Road Toll Collection System” Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-287308, “Toll Road Toll Collection Device” Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-105875, “traffic volume control system” Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-101571, “Congestion Determination Method, Congestion Determination System, Congestion Determination Device, and Storage Medium”

Although the automatic toll collection system (ETC) of Patent Documents 1 and 2 described above can alleviate congestion at toll road tollgates, it cannot alleviate congestion at normal driving sections.
Further, the system of Patent Document 3 is intended to alleviate congestion in a normal travel section, but the prediction accuracy of the congestion is not sufficient, and “provides unnecessary services when unnecessary” or “necessary Problems such as “not providing necessary services at times” are likely to occur. Furthermore, when there is no room for changing lanes, there is a high possibility of “display for prompting lane changes”, which may cause a safety problem.

Further, the system of Patent Document 4 has a problem that it is impossible to predict a traffic jam before the occurrence of the traffic jam because it determines that the traffic jam occurs when the traffic jam occurs under the actual traffic state information on the road. .
In addition, a traffic control system or vehicle speed that provides appropriate travel speed information in an arbitrary section to vehicles traveling on a highway or an automobile-only road to alleviate chronic congestion. A control system and a method called ramp metering that aims to alleviate traffic congestion by restricting entrances with ramps have also been announced.

  However, these systems look at the entire traffic flow as a macro, provide the same information to the whole and aim at rectification, not aim at optimizing the utilization rate of each lane, but the effect is limited Yes.

  The present invention has been made to solve the various problems described above. That is, it is an object of the present invention to accurately predict traffic jams on an expressway or an automobile-only road before actual traffic jams occur, which is suitable for vehicles that run before traffic jams occur. It is an object of the present invention to provide a traffic congestion mitigation apparatus and method capable of providing congestion mitigation information and optimizing the utilization rate of each lane and the lane density in the road traveling direction.

According to the present invention, a traffic congestion mitigation device for a vehicle-only road having a plurality of traveling lanes,
A first traffic flow sensor provided in a first section on the vehicle exclusive road;
A first information providing device provided in a second section downstream from the first section;
A roadside system for connecting the first traffic flow sensor and the first information providing device via a network;
The first traffic flow sensor measures an average traffic volume Q and an average speed V for each lane in the first section,
The roadside system creates congestion mitigation information C from the average traffic volume Q and average speed V,
The first information providing device provides the traffic congestion alleviating device to provide the traffic congestion alleviating information to a vehicle traveling in the second section.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first traffic flow sensor is a traffic sensor that is provided in each traveling lane of the first section and is capable of detecting the speed of a vehicle passing the first reference position,
The roadside system stores the correlation distribution data of the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V of each lane, and the monitoring area A immediately before the traffic jam of each lane set in the area immediately before the traffic jam immediately before the traffic jam occurs from the correlation distribution data. And
When all the combinations of the average traffic volume and the average speed of each lane detected by the traffic flow sensor are in the monitoring area immediately before the traffic jam, the traffic jam mitigation information is provided.

The roadside system calculates the lane changeable ratio of each lane, and provides the lane changeable ratio as the congestion reduction information C when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold.
In addition, when a traffic jam is predicted by the roadside system, the first information providing device provides information prompting the driver not to change lanes.
In addition, when traffic congestion is predicted by the roadside system, the first information providing device may display the lane usage rate or traffic volume for each lane.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the traffic congestion mitigation device includes a second traffic flow sensor provided in a first section on a junction road that merges with the vehicle exclusive road,
A second information providing device provided in a second section downstream of the first section in the junction road;
The roadside system connects the second traffic flow sensor and a second information providing device via a network,
Further, when the roadside system predicts traffic congestion on the vehicle-dedicated road, the roadside system is based on the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor, among a plurality of traveling lanes of the vehicle-only road to be merged, To alleviate traffic congestion, create lane information about the desired lane for driving,
The second information providing device provides the lane information to a vehicle traveling on the second section of the junction road.

  When the traffic on the road dedicated to the vehicle is predicted by the roadside system and the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, the roadside system It is preferable to create lane information indicating that it is desirable to travel in the first travel lane.

  In addition, when the traffic on the road dedicated to the vehicle is predicted by the roadside system and the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor exceeds a predetermined value, the roadside system is at least a merging road in the merging vehicle dedicated road. It is preferable to create lane information indicating that it is desirable to travel in a plurality of travel lanes other than the travel lane farthest from the side.

  Preferably, the roadside system calculates a lane changeable ratio of each lane of the vehicle-dedicated road based on a measurement result of the first traffic flow sensor, and when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold, Provide lane information.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a method for reducing traffic congestion on a dedicated vehicle road having a plurality of traveling lanes,
A traffic flow measuring step for measuring an average traffic volume Q and an average speed V for each lane in the first section on the vehicle exclusive road;
Congestion alleviation information creation step for creating congestion alleviation information C from the average traffic volume Q and average speed V;
There is provided a traffic congestion alleviation method comprising: a traffic congestion alleviation information providing step for providing the traffic congestion alleviation information to a vehicle traveling in a second interval downstream from the first interval.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the congestion mitigation information creation step, the correlation distribution data of the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V for each predetermined time in each lane in advance and immediately before the occurrence of the congestion from the correlation distribution data. Store the traffic jam monitoring area A of each lane set in the traffic jam immediately preceding area,
When all the combinations of the average traffic volume and average speed of each lane measured in the traffic flow measurement step are in the monitoring area immediately before the traffic jam, the traffic jam mitigation information is provided.

  In the traffic jam alleviation information creation step, the lane changeable ratio of each lane is calculated, and the traffic jam relaxation information C is provided when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the traffic congestion alleviation method comprises:
Measuring a traffic volume in a first section on a merge road that merges with the vehicle exclusive road;
Predicting whether a traffic jam will occur on the vehicle-only road based on the average traffic volume Q and average speed V;
When predicting traffic congestion on a dedicated vehicle road, based on the measured traffic volume in the first section on the merged road, run in order to alleviate the traffic congestion in the multiple travel lanes of the dedicated vehicle road to be merged. Creating lane information about the desired lane for the vehicle,
Providing the lane information to a vehicle traveling in a second section downstream from the first section on the junction road.

  According to the apparatus and method of the present invention, the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V for each lane are measured in the first section on the vehicle-dedicated road, and traffic congestion mitigation information C for each lane is created from this. Congestion mitigation information is provided substantially in real time to vehicles traveling in two sections, so that it is possible to optimize the utilization rate of each lane and the lane density in the road traveling direction.

The first traffic flow sensor (traffic sensor) detects the speed of the vehicle passing the first reference position of each travel lane in the first section, and the combination of the detected average traffic volume and average speed of each travel lane. When everything is in the monitoring area just before traffic congestion, traffic congestion mitigation information is provided, so the traffic volume status can be monitored in more detail, so it is possible to accurately predict traffic congestion before it actually occurs. Appropriate traffic congestion mitigation information can be provided to vehicles that travel before the occurrence of the problem.
That is, it is possible to accurately predict traffic jams, and it is possible to reduce the need to provide unnecessary services when they are unnecessary or not to provide necessary services when necessary.

Furthermore, since the lane changeable ratio of each lane is calculated and the traffic congestion mitigation information C is provided only when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold, the lane change is performed only when there is a lane changeable space. By implementing such a traffic congestion alleviation service, the risk of accidents associated with lane changes can be reduced, and safety can be improved.
In particular, when traffic congestion is predicted, information that prompts the driver not to change lanes is provided, so that it is possible to prevent traffic congestion caused by the driver's psychology being biased toward the overtaking lane.

  If there is a confluence road that merges with the vehicle exclusive road, the congestion is reduced in the multiple driving lanes of the conjoined vehicle exclusive road based on the traffic volume of the confluence road when the congestion of the vehicle exclusive road is predicted. Therefore, lane information about the desired lane for travel is created, and this lane information is provided to vehicles traveling on the junction road, so the usage rate of each traveling lane on the vehicle-only road where the junction road merges is determined. It can be optimized and traffic congestion can be reduced.

  In addition, it is desirable to travel on the first driving lane from the merging road side on the merging road when the traffic on the merging road is predicted and the traffic volume on the merging road is below a predetermined value. Since the lane information is created, it is possible to minimize the lane change on the vehicle-only road, thereby improving the safety while alleviating the traffic jam.

On the other hand, when a traffic jam on the exclusive road is predicted and the traffic volume on the confluence road exceeds a predetermined value, the vehicle exclusive road to be merged travels in multiple lanes other than the lane that is at least farthest from the confluence road side Since lane information indicating that it is desirable to do is created, when there is a lot of traffic on the merging road, it is possible to guide to a plurality of traveling lanes on the vehicle-only road. Thereby, it can suppress that a vehicle concentrates on the 1st driving lane from the merging road side.
Further, since the vehicle from the merging road is not guided to the overtaking lane that is farthest from the merging road side, the concentration of the vehicle on the lane can be suppressed, thereby reducing congestion.

  Furthermore, since the roadside system provides the lane information only when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold, that is, when there is a lane changeable vacancy, there is a risk of an accident at a junction. Decrease safety and improve safety.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the common part in each figure, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a traffic congestion alleviating apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The traffic congestion alleviating apparatus of the first embodiment is an apparatus that reduces traffic congestion on a vehicle-only road 4 having a plurality of traveling lanes 4a, 4b, 4c. The traveling lanes 4a, 4b, and 4c are a first lane, a second lane, and a third lane in this example, respectively. The third lane may be an overtaking lane.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the case of three lanes (three lanes), and may be two lanes or less or four lanes or more.

  On the vehicle exclusive road 4, a mounted vehicle 2 equipped with a vehicle-mounted device 1 capable of communication and a non-mounted vehicle 3 not mounted with the vehicle-mounted device 1 travel in a mixed manner. In addition, it is not an essential condition that the mounted vehicle 2 and the non-mounted vehicle 3 travel together, and only one of them may be used.

  In the present invention, a vehicle equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 1 described above is referred to as a “mounted vehicle”, and a vehicle not equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 1 is referred to as a “non-mounted vehicle”. Further, in the present invention, the vehicle means an automobile and a motorcycle that run on an expressway or an automobile exclusive road.

  In FIG. 1, the traffic congestion alleviating device of the first embodiment includes a first traffic flow sensor 12, a first information providing device 14, and a roadside system 16.

  The first traffic flow sensor 12 is provided in the first section 5 on the vehicle exclusive road 4 and measures the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V for each lane in the first section 5. The installation position of the first traffic flow sensor 12 may be upstream of the first section 5. In addition, the distance (length) of the first section 5 is as long as each vehicle that has passed through the first section 5 reaches the second section 6 as long as preparation for information provision from the first information providing device 14 is in time. A short setting is recommended.

  The first traffic flow sensor 12 is preferably a traffic sensor provided in each traveling lane of the first section 5. The traffic sensor is composed of a pair of coils embedded at intervals in the traveling direction, detects a vehicle passing therethrough from a magnetic change, and at the same time detects the speed of the passing vehicle from the detection time difference. Hereinafter, this detection position is referred to as a “first reference position”.

The first traffic flow sensor 12 is not limited to a traffic sensor, and may be a three-dimensional laser radar, for example. The three-dimensional laser radar irradiates the vehicle traveling in the first section 5 with pulsed laser light from the front and up and down and right and left, and measures the feedback time of the pulsed laser light reflected by the vehicles 2 and 3. The position of each vehicle can be calculated.
With this three-dimensional laser radar, the position of a plurality of vehicles 2 and 3 traveling in a predetermined traveling section is measured in real time, and the speed, head time, traveling lane, large and small size of each vehicle are distinguished from the time difference. can do. Hereinafter, the speed, head time, travel lane, and large / small distinction of each vehicle are referred to as “vehicle information of the vehicle”.

The first information providing device 14 is provided in the second section 6 downstream from the first section 5, and provides traffic congestion alleviation information to a vehicle traveling in the second section 6.
In this example, the first information providing device 14 includes a display board 14a and a communication device 14b. The display board 14a is, for example, an electric display device, and displays the traffic congestion mitigation information created by the roadside system 16 in characters. The communication device 14b communicates the same congestion mitigation information to the “onboard vehicle” on which the on-vehicle device 1 is mounted by communication with the on-vehicle device 1. The traffic jam alleviation information in the vehicle-mounted device 1 may be displayed in the same character display as the display board 14a or may be used in combination with voice display.

The roadside system 16 connects the first traffic flow sensor 12, the display device, and the communication device via a network. This network may be well-known wide area communication or Internet communication, or may be a partial combination thereof.
The roadside system 16 further includes a computer 16a and a storage device 16b, and has a function of creating congestion mitigation information C for each lane from the average traffic volume Q and average speed V detected by the first traffic flow sensor 12.
In addition, when the roadside system 16 predicts a traffic jam, it is preferable to create information that prompts the driver not to change lanes, and this information is provided to the driver by the first information providing device. By providing this information, it is possible to prevent traffic jams caused by the driver's psychology being biased toward the overtaking lane.

Moreover, when traffic congestion is predicted by the roadside system, it is preferable to display the lane utilization rate or traffic volume for each lane by the first information providing device.
For example, by displaying the overtaking lane usage rate of 70% and the driving lane usage rate of 30%, the lane change is promoted to the driving lane, and the lane usage rate is guided to the overtaking lane 50% and the driving lane 50%. Mitigation can be achieved.
That is, when the overtaking lane usage rate is 70% and the driving lane usage rate is 30%, the traffic congestion starts from the overtaking lane, and as a result, the driving lane also becomes congested, but the overtaking lane usage rate is 50%. %, When the driving lane utilization rate is 50%, the start of the traffic jam can be delayed and the traffic jam can be alleviated.

  FIG. 2 is a correlation distribution diagram of the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V on a certain road. In this figure, the horizontal axis is the average traffic volume Q, the vertical axis is the average speed V, and each point in the figure is a plot of the average traffic volume and average speed over a fixed time (for example, 5 minutes). Such correlation distribution data is disclosed, for example, in Non-Patent Document 1 described above.

  In this figure, at a certain average speed (about 90 [km / h] in this example), when the traffic volume Q is small, even if the number of vehicles increases, the average speed decreases little and the average traffic volume Q simply increases. To do. However, as indicated by the arrows in the figure, the traffic volume Q increases, and when it exceeds a certain peak, traffic congestion occurs, the average speed greatly decreases, and the average traffic volume Q tends to decrease.

  FIG. 3 is a correlation distribution diagram of the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V. This figure shows the correlation between the average traffic volume and average speed correlation distribution of each lane and the predetermined average traffic volume and average speed correlation distribution area of each lane.

  In FIG. 3, the horizontal axis represents the average traffic volume Q, and the vertical axis represents the average speed V. In addition, the three curves in the figure show the correlation distribution data of the first lane 4a, the second lane 4b, and the third lane 4c from the slowest average speed.

  The roadside system 16 according to the first embodiment creates the congestion mitigation information when all the combinations of the average traffic volume and the average speed of each traveling lane detected by the first traffic flow sensor 12 described above are in the monitoring area immediately before the congestion. .

  That is, in the correlation distribution diagram of FIG. 3, the actual traffic jam occurs in the “traffic jam region”, but before that, it always passes through the “traffic jam monitoring zone A” of each lane. When all the lanes are in the “pre-congestion monitoring area A”, when traffic congestion mitigation information is created and provided, it is possible to accurately predict traffic jams.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the lane changeable ratio in the first embodiment of the present invention.
The lane changeable ratio P is defined as the probability that a certain gap G (inter-vehicle distance) that can change lanes while traveling a unit distance is found in adjacent lanes. The lane changeable ratio is obtained as follows.

(1) A travel locus of a vehicle traveling in the unit section L of the lane i (i = 1, 2, 3) is obtained. In the case of using a traffic sensor, it is assumed that the vehicle has traveled through a certain section at a passing speed, and is virtually arranged in space-time. When a three-dimensional laser radar is used, a travel locus of the vehicle is obtained by image analysis or the like, and is virtually arranged on the space-time.
(2) A region in which a time span in which a lane can be changed is secured is obtained from the gap G between the front and rear vehicles.

(3) Superimpose the vehicle trajectories of adjacent lanes to find the distance traveled along with the gap that can change lanes within the section. Let Lg be the running distance with a gap that can be changed from lane i + 1 to i. j is the number of times a lane changeable gap is encountered.
(4) The ratio of the parallel running distance Lg to the lane changeable gap of each vehicle and the section length L is obtained, and the average value per unit time is set as the lane changeable ratio P from lane i + 1 to i. P is represented by the formula (1) of Formula 1.

  The roadside system 16 according to the first embodiment calculates the lane changeable ratio P of each lane, and provides the congestion mitigation information C when the lane changeable ratio P exceeds a predetermined threshold.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the traffic congestion alleviating method of the first embodiment. As shown in this figure, the traffic congestion mitigation method of the first embodiment includes a traffic flow measurement step S1, a traffic jam relaxation information creation step S2, and a traffic jam relaxation information provision step S3.
In the traffic flow measuring step S1, the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V for each lane are measured in the first section 5 on the vehicle exclusive road 4.

In the traffic jam alleviation information creation step S2, traffic jam relief information C is created from the measured average traffic volume Q and average speed V.
In the traffic jam alleviation information creation step S2, the correlation distribution data of the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V for each predetermined time in each lane and each area set immediately before the traffic jam from the correlation distribution data. The lane traffic jam monitoring area A is stored.
Furthermore, when all the combinations of the average traffic volume and the average speed detected by the first traffic flow sensor 12 are in the monitoring area immediately before the traffic jam in the traffic jam alleviation information creation step S2, the lane changeable ratio P of each traffic lane is set. When the lane changeable ratio P is calculated and exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the congestion alleviation information C is provided.

In the traffic jam alleviation information providing step S3, the traffic jam mitigation information C is provided to the vehicle traveling in the second zone 6 downstream from the first zone 5.
In this information provision, the congestion alleviation information created by the roadside system 16 is displayed in characters on the display board 14a (for example, an electric display device) for all vehicles. Further, the same traffic congestion mitigation information is communicated to the “mounted vehicle” equipped with the vehicle-mounted device 1 by communication with the vehicle-mounted device 1. The traffic jam alleviation information in the vehicle-mounted device 1 may be displayed in the same character display as the display board 14a or may be used in combination with voice display.

According to the apparatus and method of the first embodiment described above, the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V for each lane are measured in the first section 5 on the vehicle exclusive road 4, and traffic congestion mitigation information C for each lane is determined from this. The traffic congestion mitigation information is provided to the vehicle traveling in the second section 6 substantially in real time, so that optimization of the usage rate of each lane and optimization of the lane density in the road traveling direction are realized. can do.

Further, the first traffic flow sensor 12 (traffic sensor) detects the speed of the vehicle passing the first reference position of each travel lane in the first section 5, and the average traffic volume and average speed of each detected travel lane are detected. When all of the combinations are in the monitoring area immediately before the traffic jam, the traffic jam mitigation information is provided, so that the traffic jam can be accurately predicted before the traffic jam actually occurs. Proper traffic congestion mitigation information can be provided.
That is, it is possible to accurately predict traffic jams, and it is possible to reduce the need to provide unnecessary services when they are unnecessary or not to provide necessary services when necessary.

  Furthermore, since the lane changeable ratio of each lane is calculated and the traffic congestion mitigation information C is provided only when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold, the lane change is performed only when there is a lane changeable space. By implementing such a traffic congestion alleviation service, the risk of accidents associated with lane changes can be reduced, and safety can be improved.

[Second Embodiment]
A traffic congestion alleviation device according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 6 shows the overall configuration of the traffic congestion alleviating apparatus of the second embodiment. The traffic congestion mitigation apparatus of the second embodiment is an apparatus applied when the merging road 21 merges with the vehicle-only road 4, and the following configuration is added to the traffic congestion mitigation apparatus of the first embodiment. Good.

As shown in FIG. 6, the traffic congestion mitigation device of the second embodiment is added to the first section 22 on the junction road 21 that merges with the vehicle exclusive road 4 in addition to the configuration of the traffic congestion mitigation device of the first embodiment. A second traffic flow sensor 24 provided and a second information providing device 25 provided in the second section 23 of the junction road 21 downstream of the first section 22 are further provided.
The configuration of the second traffic flow sensor 24 may be the same as the configuration of the first traffic flow sensor 12 described above. The configuration of the second information providing device 25 may be the same as the configuration of the first information providing device 14 described above, and includes a display board 25a and a communication device 25b as in the first information providing device 14.
Further, the distance (length) of the first section 22 is ready for providing lane information to be described later from the second information providing device 25 until each vehicle that has passed through the first section 22 reaches the second section 23. It is better to set as short as possible.

The roadside system 16 connects the second traffic flow sensor 24 and the second information providing device 25 via a network.
Then, when the roadside system 16 predicts a traffic jam on the vehicle-only road 4, the roadside system 16 determines whether the traffic on the vehicle-only road 4 to be merged is based on the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor 24. Thus, in order to alleviate traffic congestion, lane information about a travel lane desirable for travel is created. The roadside system 16 can predict a traffic jam based on the above average traffic volume Q and average speed V. For example, it is assumed that a traffic jam is predicted when it is determined that all the combinations of the average traffic volume and the average speed of the travel lanes 4a, 4b, and 4c are in the monitoring area immediately before the traffic jam.
On the other hand, the second information providing device 25 provides the lane information to the vehicle traveling on the second section 23 of the junction road 21.
Other configurations of the traffic congestion alleviating device according to the second embodiment may be the same as those in the first embodiment.

  According to the configuration of the second embodiment described above, for example, when traffic congestion is predicted downstream from the junction point on the vehicle-only road 4, the vehicle from the junction road 21 is changed to the vehicle based on the traffic volume of the junction road 21. It is possible to guide to a lane desirable for reducing congestion on the exclusive road 4.

Preferably, when the traffic on the vehicle dedicated road 4 is predicted by the roadside system 16 and the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor 24 is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the roadside system 16 Then, lane information indicating that it is desirable to travel in the first travel lane (the first lane 4a in the example of FIG. 6) from the merging road 21 side is created.
The second information providing device 25 provides the lane information to a vehicle traveling on the second section 23 of the merging road 21.
As a result, when the traffic on the junction road 21 is small, the vehicle traveling on the junction road 21 is guided to the first lane 4a, so that the lane change of the vehicle joining the vehicle exclusive road 4 is minimized. , Improve safety.

In addition, when the traffic on the vehicle-only road 4 is predicted by the road-side system 16 and the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor 24 exceeds a predetermined value, the road-side system 16 is at least in the vehicle-only road 4 to be joined. Lane information indicating that it is desirable to travel in a plurality of travel lanes other than the travel lane farthest from the merging road 21 side (in the example of FIG. 6, the first lane 4a and the second lane 4b) is created.
The second information providing device 25 provides the lane information to a vehicle traveling on the second section 23 of the merging road 21.
As a result, when the traffic on the junction road 21 is heavy, the vehicles traveling on the junction road 21 are guided to the first lane 4a and the second lane 4b, so that the vehicles can be prevented from concentrating on the first lane 4a. Lane utilization can be optimized. Further, since the vehicle from the junction road 21 is not guided to the third lane 4c, the concentration of the vehicle on the third lane 4c can be suppressed, thereby reducing the traffic jam.

  Preferably, the lane information is provided only when the lane changeable ratio P described above exceeds a predetermined threshold. That is, since lane information is provided only when there is a vacant space that can be changed, the risk of an accident at a junction is reduced and safety is improved.

Next, a traffic jam alleviating method according to the second embodiment will be described.
In this traffic jam alleviation method, it is determined whether or not a traffic jam occurs on the vehicle exclusive road 4 based on the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V described above. On the other hand, the traffic volume in the first section 22 on the junction road 21 that merges with the vehicle exclusive road 4 is measured.
And based on these results, the lane information of the vehicle exclusive road 4 is created and provided to the vehicles on the junction road 21.
That is, when the traffic congestion of the vehicle exclusive road 4 is predicted based on the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V, the vehicle exclusive road 4 to be merged is determined based on the traffic volume measured in the first section 22 on the merge road 21. In order to alleviate traffic jams in a plurality of travel lanes, lane information about travel lanes desirable for travel is created. Subsequently, this lane information is provided to the vehicle traveling on the second section 23 of the junction road 21.

  With reference to FIG. 7, the traffic congestion alleviating method of the second embodiment will be described in more detail. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the traffic congestion alleviating method of the second embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 7, in the traffic congestion alleviating method according to the second embodiment, the steps up to step S2 are the same as those in the first embodiment, but are different thereafter.
That is, first, in the same manner as in the first embodiment, when all the combinations of the average traffic volume and the average speed of each traveling lane detected by the first traffic flow sensor 12 are the monitoring area immediately before the traffic jam in step S2, The lane changeable ratio P of the lane is calculated, and when the lane changeable ratio P exceeds a predetermined threshold, the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, it is determined whether or not the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor 24 exceeds a predetermined value C. This traffic volume may be, for example, the number of vehicles detected by the second traffic flow sensor 24 within a predetermined time.
When the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor 24 is equal to or less than the predetermined value C, the process proceeds to step S5, and the first traveling lane from the merging road 21 side (in the example of FIG. Lane information indicating that it is desirable to travel in the first lane 4a) is created. If the lane changeable ratio P from the merging road 21 side to the first travel lane on the vehicle exclusive road 4 does not exceed a predetermined threshold, neither creation nor provision of lane information is performed.
On the other hand, when the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor 24 is equal to or less than the predetermined value C, the process proceeds to step S6, and a plurality of vehicle lanes other than at least the travel lane farthest from the merging road 21 side in the merging vehicle dedicated road 4 Lane information indicating that it is desirable to travel in the following lane (in the example of FIG. 6, the first lane 4a and the second lane 4b). If the lane changeable ratio P to a plurality of travel lanes other than the travel lane that is at least farthest from the merging road 21 side in the vehicle exclusive road 4 does not exceed a predetermined threshold, the creation and provision of lane information is also provided. Not performed.

  Then, it progresses to step S7 and provides the lane information created by step S5 or S6 to the vehicle which drive | works the 2nd area 23 of the junction road 21. FIG.

  As described above, according to the apparatus and method according to the second embodiment, when there is a merging road 21 that merges with the vehicle-only road 4, the traffic on the merging road 21 is calculated when a traffic jam on the vehicle-only road 4 is predicted. Based on the plurality of traveling lanes of the vehicle exclusive road 4 to be merged, lane information about a traveling lane desirable for traveling is created in order to alleviate congestion, and this lane information is provided to the vehicles on the merging road 21. Since it provides, the utilization factor of each traveling lane in the vehicle exclusive road 4 where the merging road 21 merges can be optimized, and this can alleviate the traffic jam.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the Example and embodiment mentioned above, Of course, it can change variously in the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a traffic congestion mitigation device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a correlation distribution map of average traffic volume Q and average speed V in a certain road. It is a correlation distribution map of average traffic volume Q and average speed V in a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing of the lane changeable ratio in 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart of the traffic congestion alleviation method by 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a whole block diagram of the traffic congestion alleviation device by 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart of the traffic congestion alleviation method by 2nd Embodiment of this invention. 1 is a configuration diagram of a “toll road toll collection system” in Patent Document 1. FIG. It is a block diagram of the "traffic volume control system" of patent document 3.

Explanation of symbols

1 on-vehicle equipment, 2 mounted vehicles, 3 non-mounted vehicles, 4 vehicle-only roads,
4a, 4b, 4c Driving lane,
5 First section of the exclusive road, 6 Second section of the exclusive road,
12 First traffic flow sensor (traffic sensor),
14 1st information provision apparatus, 14a Display board, 14b Communication apparatus,
16 roadside system, 16a computer, 16b storage device 21 merge road, 22 first section of merge road 23 second section 24 of merge road second traffic flow sensor (traffic sensor),
25 Second information providing device

Claims (11)

A traffic congestion mitigation device for a vehicle-only road having a plurality of traveling lanes,
A first traffic flow sensor provided in a first section on the vehicle exclusive road;
A first information providing device provided in a second section downstream from the first section;
A roadside system for connecting the first traffic flow sensor and the first information providing device via a network;
The first traffic flow sensor measures an average traffic volume Q and an average speed V for each lane in the first section,
The roadside system creates congestion mitigation information C from the average traffic volume Q and average speed V,
The first information providing device provides the congestion mitigation information to a vehicle traveling in a second section,
The first traffic flow sensor is a traffic sensor that is provided in each traveling lane of the first section and is capable of detecting the speed of a vehicle passing the first reference position,
The roadside system includes correlation distribution data of the average traffic volume Q and average speed V of each lane, and a monitoring area A immediately before the traffic jam of each lane set in the traffic jam just before the traffic jam occurs from the correlation distribution data. Remember,
A traffic congestion alleviating apparatus, characterized in that, when all the combinations of average traffic volume and average speed of each lane detected by the first traffic flow sensor are in a monitoring area immediately before a traffic jam, the traffic jam mitigation information is provided . The roadside system calculates a lane changeable ratio of each lane, when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold value, according to claim 1, wherein providing ease congestion information C, and characterized in that Traffic congestion mitigation device.   The traffic congestion alleviating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when traffic congestion is predicted by the roadside system, the first information providing apparatus provides information prompting the driver not to change lanes.   2. The traffic congestion alleviating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the traffic congestion is predicted by the roadside system, the first information providing apparatus displays a lane usage rate or a traffic volume for each lane. A second traffic flow sensor provided in a first section on a merge road that merges with the vehicle exclusive road;
A second information providing device provided in a second section downstream of the first section in the junction road;
The roadside system connects the second traffic flow sensor and a second information providing device via a network,
Further, when the roadside system predicts traffic congestion on the vehicle-dedicated road, the roadside system is based on the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor, among a plurality of traveling lanes of the vehicle-only road to be merged, To alleviate traffic congestion, create lane information about the desired lane for driving,
The traffic congestion alleviating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second information providing apparatus provides the lane information to a vehicle traveling on a second section of a junction road. When the traffic on the road dedicated to the vehicle is predicted by the roadside system and the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, the roadside system 6. The traffic congestion alleviating apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein lane information indicating that it is desirable to travel in the first travel lane is created. When the traffic on the road dedicated to the vehicle is predicted by the roadside system and the traffic volume measured by the second traffic flow sensor exceeds a predetermined value, the roadside system is at least from the side of the merging road in the vehicle dedicated road to be joined. 6. The traffic congestion alleviating apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein lane information is created that it is desirable to travel in a plurality of travel lanes other than the most distant travel lane. The roadside system calculates a lane changeable ratio of each lane of the vehicle-dedicated road based on the measurement result of the first traffic flow sensor, and when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold, the lane information is calculated. The traffic congestion alleviating apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the apparatus is provided. A method for reducing traffic congestion on a dedicated vehicle road having a plurality of driving lanes,
A traffic flow measuring step for measuring an average traffic volume Q and an average speed V for each lane in the first section on the vehicle exclusive road;
Congestion alleviation information creation step for creating congestion alleviation information C from the average traffic volume Q and average speed V;
The vehicle traveling the second zone downstream of the first section, have a, and alleviate traffic congestion information providing step of providing the congestion mitigation information,
In the traffic jam mitigation information creation step, the correlation distribution data of the average traffic volume Q and the average speed V for each predetermined time for each lane in advance and each lane set in the traffic jam immediately before the traffic jam occurs from the correlation distribution data The traffic area A immediately before the traffic jam
A traffic congestion alleviation method, characterized in that the traffic congestion alleviation information is provided when all of the combinations of average traffic volume and average speed of each lane measured in the traffic flow measurement step are in a traffic jam monitoring area . In alleviating traffic congestion information generating step, calculates the lane changeable ratio of each lane, when the lane changeable ratio exceeds a predetermined threshold value, according to claim 9, characterized in that providing the congestion mitigation information C To reduce traffic congestion. Measuring a traffic volume in a first section on a merge road that merges with the vehicle exclusive road;
Predicting whether a traffic jam will occur on the vehicle-only road based on the average traffic volume Q and average speed V;
When predicting traffic congestion on a dedicated vehicle road, based on the measured traffic volume in the first section on the merged road, run in order to alleviate the traffic congestion in the multiple travel lanes of the dedicated vehicle road to be merged. Creating lane information about the desired lane for the vehicle,
The traffic congestion alleviating method according to claim 9 , further comprising the step of providing the lane information to a vehicle traveling in a second section downstream from the first section on the junction road.

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