COMPUTER CALCULATION OF BEST TRAFFIC SIGNAL SETTINGS IN VANCOUVER'S DOWNTOWN NETWORK

A COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR DETERMINING THE TRAFFIC SIGNAL SETTINGS WHICH MINIMIZE VEHICLE DELAY IN A CO-ORDINATED SYSTEM OF FIXED-TIME TRAFFIC-CONTROL SIGNALS IS DESCRIBED. USING OBSERVED DATA ON STREET CONFIGURATION AND TRAFFIC VOLUMES, THE COMPUTER DETERMINES THE OPTIMUM SETTINGS OF THE RED GREEN SPLIT AND THE TRAFFIC PROGRESSION OFFSET FOR EACH SIGNAL. BY ITERATIVE USE, THE PROGRAM CAN BE USED TO EVALUATE VARIOUS CYCLE LENGTHS. BESIDES REDUCING VEHICLE DELAYS IN AN EXISTING SYSTEM, THE PROGRAM ALSO PROVIDES A QUICK AND INEXPENSIVE METHOD OF EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ALTERNATIVE STREET ARRANGEMENTS. THE PROGRAM HAS BEEN DEVELOPED FOR APPLICATION TO THE 81 SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS IN THE DOWNTOWN CORE OF VANCOUVER, B.C., ALTHOUGH THE POTENTIAL APPLICATION IS NOT RESTRICTED TO THIS CITY. APPLICATION OF THE PROGRAM HAS SHOWN THAT VEHICLE-DELAYS IN THE EVENING RUSH PERIOD CAN BE REDUCED BY BETWEEN 10 AND 23 PERCENT THROUGH CHANGING SPLITS AND OFFSETS WHILST MAINTAINING THE SAME CYCLE LENGTH. THE COST OF RUNNING THE PROGRAM ON A UNIVAC 1108 COMPUTER IS LESS THAN $100. THE SAVING HAS BEEN CHECKED BY PILOT CAR TESTS. THESE HAVE NOT ONLY SHOWN THE ABOVE SAVINGS, BUT HAVE ALSO INDICATED THAT THE SAVINGS HAVE OCCURRED IN THOSE BLOCKS WHICH THE COMPUTER PREDICTED. /CGRA/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • 18 Pp, 3 FiG, 1 TAB, 4 REF
• Corporate Authors:

  Vancouver, British Columbia /Can

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Clapham, J C
  • Wild, C
  • Lambe, T A
• Publication Date: 1967

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Calculation; Central business districts; Computers; Economics; Minimization; Offsets (Traffic signal timing); Pretimed traffic signal controllers; Progression (Mathematics); Traffic control; Traffic delays; Traffic signal timing
• Uncontrolled Terms: Computation
• Old TRIS Terms: Progression; Traffic control systems
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00225092
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: CANADIAN GOOD ROADS ASSOCIATION
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 26 1994 12:00AM