THE BENEFITS OF SCRAM: THE MAROONDAH HIGHWAY SURVEY

A survey to compare vehicle and travel characteristics under three different signal control modes (SCAT dynamic, linked vehicle actuated and isolated) was conducted on a 13.5 kilometre section of Maroondah Highway during 1982. The survey was conducted in two parts -an instrumented vehicle survey to ascertain route operational comparisons and an intersection delay survey to ascertain the effects of the three signal modes on side-road traffic. This paper provides details of the design, conduct and results of the Maroondah Highway survey, and of the lessons learnt regarding the design and operation of the traffic signal system. The results of the surveys indicate that, for journey time, stops, delay, pke and average speed, co-ordinated operation gives significantly better operation than isolated control in all survey periods for vehicles travelling along the highway. In particular, the difference between SCAT dynamic and isolated was in SCAT's favour 21 per cent for journey time and 14 per cent for fuel usage when averaged over all the survey periods. Compared with lva operation, SCAT again gave superior operation in most measured variables when averaged over all the survey periods, in particular, journey time was 5 per cent and stops 22 per cent lower under SCAT than lva. Analysis of the intersection delay showed that the difference between modes was less clear cut. The results of the side-street analysis showed that the side-street approaches suffered increased delay/stops under co-ordinated control. This result was not general for all intersections and the net improvement under SCAT was still very significant. The number of the covering abstract for the conference is TRIS No. 393385. (TRRL)

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  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was presented during the 12th Australian Road Research Board Conference, Hobart, Tasmania, 27-31 August 1984.
  • Corporate Authors:

    ARRB

    Melbourne, Victoria  Australia 
  • Authors:
    • NEGUS, B J
    • Moore, S E
  • Publication Date: 1984

Media Info

  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: p. 1-16
  • Serial:

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00393440
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: ARRB
  • Files: ITRD, TRIS, ATRI
  • Created Date: Jun 30 1985 12:00AM