ADVANCED CONTROL TECHNOLOGY IN URBAN TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS. ENHANCED UTCS CONTROL SYSTEMS DESCRIPTION

RESEARCH IN FOUR AREAS IS REPORTED: (1) FOR MEASURES OF COST EFFECTIVENESS, ALGORITHMS WERE WRITTEN TO COMPUTE UTCS USER COSTS ON INSTRUMENTED LINKS FOR BOTH NORMAL AND ABNORMAL CONDITIONS. BASELINE UTCS SOFTWARE WAS USED TO COMPUTE DELAYS AND STOPS ON MULTIDETECTOR LINKS, BUT A NEW METHOD WAS DEVISED FOR SINGLE-DETECTOR LINKS. COMPARATIVE LINK-COST STUDIES WERE MADE BY TREATING SOME MULTIDETECTOR LINKS AS SINGLE-DETECTOR ONES. (2) INSTRUMENTATION OF PARKING GARAGES PROVED TO BE NOT A COST EFFECTIVE WAY OF DEALING WITH THE CONGESTION THEY CAUSE. (3) FOR TURN SURVEILLANCE, AN ALGORITHM WAS DEVISED TO COMPUTE TURNING VOLUMES AND BLOCKAGE PARAMETERS FOR DOWNSTREAM AND UPSTREAM INTERSECTIONS. THE NUMBER AND LOCATION OF DETECTORS USED FOR THIS PURPOSE IS INCLUDED. THE RESULT IS THAT TURN INFORMATION WILL NOT BE ACCURATE IN SOME CIRCUMSTANCES, NOTABLY ON SHORT LINKS. INTERSECTION BLOCKAGE DATA WILL BE RELIABLE ON PERHAPS 65--70% OF THE TOTAL NUMBER OF CIC-INSTRUMENTED LINKS. (4) MULTIPHASE CRITICAL INTERSECTION CONTROL STUDIES RESULTED IN NEW DEMAND AND CONTROL ALGORITHMS THAT PERMIT A LARGE GROUP OF MULTIPHASE INTERSECTIONS TO BE BROUGHT MORE EFFICIENTLY INTO THE UTCS STRUCTURE. DEMAND IS DETERMINED BY VOLUME AND QUEUE, RATHER THAN BY QUEUE ALONG. PLACEMENT OF THE THIRD DETECTOR IS IMPORTANT FOR THE ACCURACY OF THIS CRITERION, AND ITS LOCATION SHOULD BE A FUNCTION OF BLOCK LENGTH. A TRADE-OFF STUDY WAS PERFORMED THAT TOOK INTO ACCOUNT THE NEEDS AND IMPORTANCE OF CIC ALGORITHMS AND TURN MEASUREMENT, AND THIRD DETECTORS WERE ADDED AND RELOCATED TO CONFORM TO THE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY. /FHWA/

• Corporate Authors:

  Sperry Rand Corporation

  Sperry Systems Management Division
  Great Neck, NY  United States  11020

  Dist of Columbia Dept Hwys & Traffic

  ,    

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Publication Date: 1970-10

Media Info

• Serial:
  • Volume: 16

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Algorithms; Computer programs; Demand; Information processing; Intersections; Parking garages; Stopped time delays; Traffic congestion; Traffic control; Traffic delays; Traffic surveillance; Turning traffic; Vehicle detectors
• Uncontrolled Terms: Turning movements
• Old TRIS Terms: Traffic control systems
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00224961
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Federal Highway Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: GF-3701-10108
• Contract Numbers: DOT-FH-11-6932
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 7 1971 12:00AM