Tunnel effects on ring road traffic flow based on an urgent-gentle class traffic model

•Tunnel effect on threshold of traffic shock formation;.•Tunnel effect on travel time;.•The application potential of traffic model UGM. To explore tunnel effects on ring road traffic flow, a macroscopic urgent-gentle class traffic model is put forward. The model identifies vehicles with urgent and gentle classes, chooses the tunnel speed limit as free flow speed to express the fundamental diagram in the tunnel, and adopts algebraic expressions to describe traffic pressure and sound speed. With two speed trajectories at the Kobotoke tunnel in Japan, the model is validated, with good agreement with observed data. Numerical results indicate that in the case of having no ramp effects, tunnel mean travel time is almost constant dependent on tunnel length. When initial density normalized by jam density is above a threshold of about 0.21, a traffic shock wave originates at the tunnel entrance and propagates backward. Such a threshold drops slightly as a result of on-ramp merging effect, the mean travel time drops as off-ramp diversion effect intensifies gradually. These findings deepen the understanding of tunnel effects on traffic flow in reality.