California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

Ramp metering has been recognized as an effective freeway management strategy to either avoid or ameliorate freeway traffic congestion by limiting access to the freeway. California has applied ramp metering widely in major metropolitan areas. Currently, California has three major ramp metering systems: San Diego Ramp Metering System (SDRMS), Semi-Actuated Traffic Management System (SATMS), and Traffic Operations System (TOS). Although the ramp metering algorithms that underlay these systems are based on relatively simple theoretical concepts, these real-world ramp metering systems are significantly complicated by the need to tailor their deployment to handle a variety of conditions.