Citation

Tarnoff PJ. Transp. Res. Rec. 1975; 531: 1-17.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1975, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The presence of data errors in a traffic-control system is unavoidable. These errors result from the inadequacies of the surveillance system, inherent characteristics of the vehicle traffic, and inaccuracies in modeling the traffic system. If these errors are not controlled during system design and implementation, they can cause degradation of system operation to the point where it is less effective than that of a pretimed system. One of the measures that can be taken to prevent this is the design of a surveillance system that introduces errors that are no greater than the errors introduced by the other elements in the system. A second measure is the collection of data before system design that will permit identification of the parameters that must be varied on a time-of-day and link-specific basis in the prediction and optimization algorithms. This paper emphasizes the errors associated with the processing of vehicle volumes because the effectiveness of the control strategy depends most on the accuracy of this variable. Consideration is also given to the limitations inherent in the prediction process and the effect of system errors on vehicle delay at controlled intersections.