Investigating traffic characteristics for merging sections in Iraq

Recurring congestion on highways is the primary cause of traffic congestion in the urban traffic system while jams on merging sections are the worst section along the expressway. Due to the presence of heavy congestion in the site of University of Technology, this study aims to discover the traffic characteristics of this site to determine the appropriate solutions. Therefore, this study selects a merging section on Mohammed Al-Qassim expressway to investigate some characteristics of such a section in Iraq. Field data have been collected from this site for 4 h. The data were collected from video cameras installed along the expressway in Baghdad city which is called Mohammed Al-Qassim Expressway. These data present flow of upstream and ramp. The Advanced Interactive Microscopic Simulator for Urban and Non-Urban Networks (AIMSUN) program was also adopted to investigate other characteristics which are difficult to get such as speed and occupancy for the current case. The results showed that the simulated and real data significantly corresponded. In this study, the AIMSUN program received recognition by utilizing Geoffrey E. Havers a method for comparing two sets of traffic volumes that are used in traffic engineering, traffic forecasting, and traffic modeling as it was discovered to be comparable to reality, and the road management was then enhanced by the addition of ramp metering and cycle (green) time control