Institute of Transportation, MOTC

Yung-Ping Tien, 2006.06

Department of Transportation Technology and Management
National Chiao Tung University

　　Signalized intersections are one of the most critical facilities of an urban transportation system. With multiple build-in timing plans, modern signal controllers have high flexibility to perform the function of timing switchovers to adapt to various traffic conditions. Unfortunately, neither of the practical tests showed that the existing approaches can operate timely and efficiently, nor of them provided insight to the traffic performance that various timing transition procedures may result. Based on some findings from the literature review, this study started with a model formulation to deal with timing transition under multiple and/or overlapping phasing conditions. Via TSIS simulation platform, a RTE program is also developed for dynamically tracing, activating, and terminating phases at the set switchover points. With various volume levels and timing combinations, this study proceeded a number of experimental designs and simulation to eight major scenarios. A series of sensitivity tests were also conducted. The analyses showed that the newly developed model could lead to a relatively good performance as compared with the others under most of the demand levels. Some transition periods for specific traffic and control conditions were also suggested based on statistical tests and comparisons.