Simulation Studies of Traffic Operations at Oversaturated, Closely Spaced Signalized Intersections

1998 ◽  
Vol 1646 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carroll J. Messer

Traffic congestion continues to have a serious impact on the productivity of the nation’s transportation system. Signalized service interchanges in urban areas serve as a critical connection between freeway and arterial surface street systems. These facilities often experience serious congestion problems because of high traffic demands exceeding capacity and because of their common, closely spaced ramp terminals. Moreover, service interchanges are usually a part of a signalized cross arterial and may also have short spacings to adjacent signalized intersections. Major deficiencies exist in the analysis technology and software tools available for analyzing traffic congestion problems at oversaturated signalized interchanges and closely spaced arterial systems. Results are provided of an investigation into the nature of oversaturated systems and also undersaturated systems that may become congested (oversaturated) because of poor signal timing and deficient spacing between the signalized intersections. Although the initial research focus was on signalized service interchanges based on calibrated NETSIM simulations, the research results are also applicable to closely spaced signalized urban arterials. The research shows that traffic congestion is complex, but it can be characterized and modeled. An upper bound on signal control delay is provided for oversaturated arterial operations.

1998 ◽  
Vol 1646 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carroll J. Messer

Traffic congestion continues to have a serious impact on the productivity of the nation’s transportation system. Signalized arterials and service interchanges in urban areas serve as critical surface street facilities. These facilities often experience serious congestion problems because of high traffic demands that exceed capacity and also because of their common, closely spaced intersections and ramp terminals. Moreover, service interchanges are usually part of a signalized cross arterial and also may have short spacings to adjacent signalized intersections. Major deficiencies exist in the analysis technology and software tools available for analyzing potential traffic congestion problems at signalized arterials and service interchanges having closely spaced ramp terminals. This paper presents extensions of work originally published by Prosser and Dunne in Australia for analyzing the operational impacts of queue spillback on the capacity and delay of closely spaced signalized intersections. Coding of the described algorithm into FORTRAN was conducted, followed by experimental testing of the model using a calibrated version of the microscopic computer simulation program TRAF-NETSIM. Satisfactory comparisons were obtained between the initial version of the newly developed Prosser-Dunne Extended (PDX) model and NETSIM, but more testing and enhancement of the PDX model are recommended before implementation in existing operational software packages is considered.


Author(s):  
Kiriakos Amiridis ◽  
Nikiforos Stamatiadis ◽  
Adam Kirk

The efficient and safe movement of traffic at signalized intersections is the primary objective of any signal-phasing and signal-timing plan. Accommodation of left turns is more critical because of the higher need for balancing operations and safety. The objective of this study was to develop models to estimate the safety effects of the use of left-turn phasing schemes. The models were based on data from 200 intersections in urban areas in Kentucky. For each intersection, approaches with a left-turn lane were isolated and considered with their opposing through approach to examine the left-turn–related crashes. This combination of movements was considered to be one of the most dangerous in intersection safety. Hourly traffic volumes and crash data were used in the modeling approach, along with the geometry of the intersection. The models allowed for the determination of the most effective type of left-turn signalization that was based on the specific characteristics of an intersection approach. The accompanying nomographs provide an improvement over existing methods and warrants and allow for a systematic and quick evaluation of the left-turn phase to be selected. The models used the most common variables that were already known during the design phase, and they could be used to determine whether a permitted or protected-only phase would suit the intersection when safety performance was considered.


Urban Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.M. Labib ◽  
Hossain Mohiuddin ◽  
Irfan Mohammad Al Hasib ◽  
Shariful Hasnine Sabuj ◽  
Shrabanti Hira

A growing body of research has applied intelligent transportation technologies to reduce traffic congestion at signalized intersections. However, most of these studies have not considered the systematic integration of traffic data collection methods when simulating optimum signal timing. The present study developed a three-part system to create optimized variable signal timing profiles for a congested intersection in Dhaka, regulated by fixed-time traffic signals. Video footage of traffic from the studied intersection was analyzed using a computer vision tool that extracted traffic flow data. The data underwent a further data-mining process, resulting in greater than 90% data accuracy. The final data set was then analyzed by a local traffic expert. Two hybrid scenarios based on the data and the expert’s input were created and simulated at the micro level. The resultant, custom, variable timing profiles for the traffic signals yielded a 40% reduction in vehicle queue length, increases in average travel speed, and a significant overall reduction in traffic congestion.


Author(s):  
Rajesh Kumar Gupta ◽  
L. N. Padhy ◽  
Sanjay Kumar Padhi

Traffic congestion on road networks is one of the most significant problems that is faced in almost all urban areas. Driving under traffic congestion compels frequent idling, acceleration, and braking, which increase energy consumption and wear and tear on vehicles. By efficiently maneuvering vehicles, traffic flow can be improved. An Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system in a car automatically detects its leading vehicle and adjusts the headway by using both the throttle and the brake. Conventional ACC systems are not suitable in congested traffic conditions due to their response delay.  For this purpose, development of smart technologies that contribute to improved traffic flow, throughput and safety is needed. In today’s traffic, to achieve the safe inter-vehicle distance, improve safety, avoid congestion and the limited human perception of traffic conditions and human reaction characteristics constrains should be analyzed. In addition, erroneous human driving conditions may generate shockwaves in addition which causes traffic flow instabilities. In this paper to achieve inter-vehicle distance and improved throughput, we consider Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) system. CACC is then implemented in Smart Driving System. For better Performance, wireless communication is used to exchange Information of individual vehicle. By introducing vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication and vehicle to roadside infrastructure (V2R) communications, the vehicle gets information not only from its previous and following vehicle but also from the vehicles in front of the previous Vehicle and following vehicle. This enables a vehicle to follow its predecessor at a closer distance under tighter control.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 884-891
Author(s):  
Salwa Salsabila Mansur ◽  
Sri Widowati ◽  
Mahmud Imrona

Traffic congestion problems generally caused by the increasing use of private vehicles and public transportations. In order to overcome the situation, the optimization of public transportation’s route is required particularly the urban transportation. In this research, the performance analysis of Firefly and Tabu Search algorithm is conducted to optimize eleven public transportation’s routes in Bandung. This optimization aims to increase the dispersion of public transportation’s route by expanding the scope of route that are crossed by public transportation so that it can reach the entire Bandung city and increase the driver’s income by providing the passengers easier access to public transportations in order to get to their destinations. The optimal route is represented by the route with most roads and highest number of incomes. In this research, the comparison results between the reference route and the public transportation’s optimized route increasing the dispersion of public transportation’s route to 60,58% and increasing the driver’s income to 20,03%.


Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Malik Doole ◽  
Joost Ellerbroek ◽  
Victor L. Knoop ◽  
Jacco M. Hoekstra

Large-scale adoption of drone-based delivery in urban areas promise societal benefits with respect to emissions and on-ground traffic congestion, as well as potential cost savings for drone-based logistic companies. However, for this to materialise, the ability of accommodating high volumes of drone traffic in an urban airspace is one of the biggest challenges. For unconstrained airspace, it has been shown that traffic alignment and segmentation can be used to mitigate conflict probability. The current study investigates the application of these principles to a highly constrained airspace. We propose two urban airspace concepts, applying road-based analogies of two-way and one-way streets by imposing horizontal structure. Both of the airspace concepts employ heading-altitude rules to vertically segment cruising traffic according to their travel direction. These airspace configurations also feature transition altitudes to accommodate turning flights that need to decrease the flight speed in order to make safe turns at intersections. While using fast-time simulation experiments, the performance of these airspace concepts is compared and evaluated for multiple traffic demand densities in terms of safety, stability, and efficiency. The results reveal that an effective way to structure drone traffic in a constrained urban area is to have vertically segmented altitude layers with respect to travel direction as well as horizontal constraints imposed to the flow of traffic. The study also makes recommendations for areas of future research, which are aimed at supporting dynamic traffic demand patterns.


Author(s):  
Taesung HWANG ◽  
Minho LEE ◽  
Chungwon LEE ◽  
Seungmo KANG

Large facilities in urban areas, such as storage facilities, distribution centers, schools, department stores, or public service centers, typically generate high volumes of accessing traffic, causing congestion and becoming major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. In conventional facility-location models, only facility construction costs and fixed transportation costs connecting customers and facilities are included, without consideration of traffic congestion and the subsequent GHG emission costs. This study proposes methods to find high-demand facility locations with incorporation of the traffic congestion and GHG emission costs incurred by both existing roadway traffic and facility users into the total cost. Tabu search and memetic algorithms were developed and tested with a conventional genetic algorithm in a variety of networks to solve the proposed mathematical model. A case study to determine the total number and locations of community service centers under multiple scenarios in Incheon City is then presented. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach can significantly reduce both the transportation and GHG emission costs compared to the conventional facility-location model. This effort will be useful for decision makers and transportation planners in the analysis of network-wise impacts of traffic congestion and vehicle emission when deciding the locations of high demand facilities in urban areas.


Author(s):  
Daniel J. Cook

Along urban and suburban arterials, closely-spaced signalized intersections are commonly used to provide access to adjacent commercial developments. Often, these signalized intersections are designed to provide full access to developments on both sides of the arterial and permit through, left-turn, and right-turn movements from every intersection approach. Traffic signal timing is optimized to reduce vehicle delay or provide progression to vehicles on the arterial, or both. However, meeting both of these criteria can be cumbersome, if not impossible, under high-demand situations. This research proposes a new design that consolidates common movements at three consecutive signalized intersections into strategic fixed locations along the arterial. The consolidation of common movements allows the intersections to cycle between only two critical phases, which, in turn, promotes shorter cycle lengths, lower delay, and better progression. This research tested the consolidated intersection concept by modeling a real-world site in microsimulation software and obtaining values for delay and travel time for multiple vehicle paths along the corridor and adjacent commercial developments in both existing and proposed conditions. With the exception of unsignalized right turns at the periphery of the study area, all non-displaced routes showed a reduction in travel time and delay. Additional research is needed to understand how additional travel through the commercial developments adjacent to the arterial may effect travel time and delay. Other expected benefits of the proposed design include a major reduction in conflict points, shorter pedestrian crossing and wait times, and the opportunity to provide pedestrian refuge areas in the median.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document