Citation

Gartner NH, Little JDC, Gabbay H. Transp. Res. Rec. 1976; 596: 6-15.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1976, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Setting traffic signals in an urban street network involves the determination of cycle time, splits of green time, and offsets. All existing methods use a sequential procedure for calculating the traffic control variables. A common cycle time is established first, then green splits are calculated for each intersection, and, finally, offsets among the signals are determined. Because these three computation stages are not really independent, the results are often not optimal. This paper describes a new computer method, mixed-integer traffic optimization, designed to optimize simultaneously all the traffic control variables of the network. The method has been programmed in conjunction with the mixed- integer routine of IBM's MPSX optimization system and thus provides a globally optimal procedure. It was applied to several traffic signal networks and is shown to offer certain advantages over existing methods. An example is presented in the paper to illustrate the input requirements, output format, and application of the program.