TACKLING TRAFFIC CONGESTION FROM BOTH THE CONTROL AND DEMAND PERSPECTIVES
SPEAKER:
PROFESSOR GANG-LEN CHANG
Professor and the Director of Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, U.S.A. and Manager of the Applied Technologies for Traffic Operations and Safety Program (ATTAP)
DATE:
16 DECEMBER 2015 (WEDNESDAY)
TIME:
19:00 - 20:00
VENUE:
WANG GUNGWU THEATRE, GRADUATE HOUSE, THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
ORGANIZED BY:
Institute of Transport Studies, The University of Hong Kong
ABSTRACT:
Despite the significant technology advancement over the past decades, effectively tackling traffic congestion remains the most difficult issue in the transportation community. Most urban commuters in either developing or developed countries suffer ineluctably from the plague of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion on their daily trips. Considering the vast body of strategies/ models in the literature for congestion control and the advent of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), the primary challenge of transportation professionals is: "how to coordinate all available tools and deploy them in an integrated manner at the corridor or network level so as to maximize their collective effectiveness." This lecture will discuss critical deployment issues associated with those popular traffic management strategies, and present some innovative congestion-mitigation methods from both the control and demand perspectives. Examples of such innovative strategies/ models include integrated variable speed control (VSL) with coordinated ramp metering, coordinated off-ramp control with multi-path arterial signal progression, transit-based arterial signal progression to promote transit ridership, and interactive traffic information system for predicting travel time and advising departure time.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Prof. Gang-Len Chang is a Professor and the Director of Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland, U.S.A. and Manager of the Applied Technologies for Traffic Operations and Safety Program (ATTAP), jointly sponsored by Maryland State Highway Administration and University of Maryland since 1996. Prof. Chang's primary research areas have been on traffic network analysis, intelligent transportation systems, and freeway controls and operations. Over the past 20 years, Prof. Chang has been the principal investigator for more than 115 transportation projects and research funding of over 36 million dollars, sponsored by both federal and state agencies. He has received the research excellence and support award from Maryland State Highway Administration, and Martin Marietta University Research Award for Intelligent Transportation Systems Development. He serves as the Chief Editor for Journal of Urban Planning and Development (ASCE) and an editorial member of several premium transportation journals over the past 15 years. Being a productive member in the academia, Prof. Chang has also been quite active in converting state-of-the-art studies to real-world applications. He has worked as a technical advisor for many ITS programs in the US and other developing countries, including United Nations Developing Country program, World Bank, Taiwan Ministry of Communications and Transportation, The Korea Transport Institute, Intelligent Transportation Systems of Martin Marietta, and Capital Region for Emergency Evacuation - Washington D.C.
