Citation

Baass KG, Allard B. Transp. Res. Rec. 1984; 957: 32-46.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The coordination of traffic lights on arterial streets can be achieved by maximizing the bandwidth or by trying to minimize delays and stops encountered on the artery and on the side streets. Both of these approaches have advantages that are partly retained in a compromise solution, where a green band is selected from among several possible bands so as to cause the least delay to the driver. A first step in this direction is described by giving the outline of a program that analyzes the relation among delays, speeds, offsets, bandwidths, and cycle lengths over a wide range of speeds and cycles. This program can be used by the practitioner to obtain the speed (for a given cycle length) that maximizes the bandwidth, or to determine the cycle (for a given speed) that maximizes bandwidth. It can also be useful to find the offset, speed, or cycle length that causes a reasonable delay to the driver while retaining an acceptable green band. The program that combines bandwidth maximization and delay minimization was applied to five data sets taken from the literature. It was found that the new approach is feasible and could have economic advantages. It was further found that, for low traffic volumes and no platoon dispersion, there is a relation between bandwidth and delays; larger bands generally result in less delay than smaller ones. But as dispersion and traffic volumes increase, this relation no longer holds. It was also strongly confirmed in all cases studied that delays increase with longer cycle lengths for a given value of K = C " V, and it was shown that there is a tendency for increasing delay with increasing cycle length for a given speed on the artery.

Language: en

Keywords

ROADS AND STREETS - Intersections; STREET TRAFFIC CONTROL; MOTOR TRANSPORTATION - Speed Control; TRAFFIC SIGNS, SIGNALS AND MARKINGS - Performance