On Monday 21 March 2016 TRAIL PhD student Bernat Goñi-Ros successfully defended his PhD thesis ‘Traffic Flow at Sags: Theory, Modelling and Control’.

Congratulations Bernat!

Short summary

Sag vertical curves (sags) are a common type of bottleneck in freeway networks. This thesis investigates the causes of congestion at sags and presents a new approach to model traffic on hilly freeways. Also, it presents new traffic management strategies to mitigate congestion at sags. Specifically, the thesis determines the optimal behavior of connected vehicles at sags and proves the potential of traffic flow control measures using variable speed limits.