Effect of Signal Control on Bimodal Travel Time Distributions

Vehicles traveling along interrupted flow facilities often exhibit travel times with bimodal distributions. The characteristics of these distributions have been studied extensively in the literature, yet the effect of signal control on bimodality have received little attention. Most researchers theorize that the slower group experiences signal delay while the faster group does not. The authors investigate the effect of signal control on bimodal distributions, specifically the difference between average travel times of two groups of vehicles. Testing is performed in simulation and compared against field results of both sampled data using Bluetooth sensors as well as non-sampled data from the NGSIM vehicle trajectories. In coordinated corridors with platooning, the authors find that red time is a strong indicator of gap between average travel times.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABJ30 Standing Committee on Urban Transportation Data and Information Systems.
• Authors:
  • Goodall, Noah J
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 13p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bluetooth technology; Data analysis; Distributions (Statistics); Red interval (Traffic signal cycle); Sensors; Signalization; Simulation; Time duration; Traffic delays; Travel time; Vehicle trajectories
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01659759
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-06401
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 12 2018 9:59AM