Improved Truck Safety At Traffic Signals (Phase A)

The project is developing new traffic signal control logic to improve the safety of heavy vehicles on high speed approaches to signalized intersections using wireless communications between the heavy vehicle and the traffic signal controller. The project builds upon the Trusted Truck infrastructure in order to have a more cost effective deployment. Given that existing traffic signals do not have the necessary information or logic to implement truly intelligent decisions, it is necessary to re-engineer a solution to provide the necessary logic to achieve the objective. The project also focuses on existing intelligent transportation system standards (National Transportation Communications for ITS Protocol [NTCIP]) to achieve a practical implementation path. During the first year on which this report focuses, a signal scheduling algorithm was developed to maximize throughput while minimizing the delay experienced by vehicles across the intersection. In particular, truck safety is a key consideration. This is achieved by allowing the algorithm to give preference to trucks that are both waiting for service as well as approaching the intersection. By stopping trucks less at high speed intersections, safety is increased. By considering the requests (i.e. vehicles awaiting service) on all approaches of the intersection and issuing green light to the most urgent combination of flows, the algorithm achieves its high performance. As a result of applying a more intelligent traffic scheduling controller, the authors observed lower average vehicle delay as well as reduced truck stops, across different traffic scenarios.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ntrci.org/ntrci-50-2008-005
• 
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Research Center, Incorporated

  2360 Cherahala Boulevard
  Knoxville, TN  United States  37932

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  Office of University Programs, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Liu, Changqin
  • Elhananay, I
  • Xu, Junjie
  • Kohls, A
  • Urbanik, T
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 27p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Algorithms; Heavy duty vehicles; Intelligent transportation systems; Signalized intersections; Traffic signal controllers; Traffic signal preemption; Trucking safety; Wireless communication systems
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01131241
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: DTRT06G-0043
• Files: UTC, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jun 25 2009 3:03PM