Effect of pre-signals in a Manhattan-like urban traffic network

Jian Huang, Mao-Bin Hu, Rui Jiang and Ming Li

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2018, vol. 503, issue C, 71-85

Abstract: Pre-signal is an additional traffic light proposed in traffic system to improve the left-turning efficiency of intersections. The efficiency of pre-signals in a networked environment will be affected by the coordination of pre-signals and the intersection traffic lights. In this paper, we study the implementation of pre-signal in a Manhattan-like urban traffic system based on a microscopic cellular automaton model. The pre-signals are located before the normal traffic lights, and have two phases (left-turning phase and through phase) for the aim of segregating left-turning and through vehicles into separate sets of lanes. We propose a reliable method to coordinate the intersection traffic light period and phases with the pre-signal period and phases. Simulation results show that the pre-signals can improve the performance of the system, for both closed and open boundaries. The macroscopic fundamental diagram of the system shows a much higher traffic flow for a wide range of densities. Moreover, the effect of pre-signal area length also needs to be considered in a networked environment. We find that the optimal length of pre-signal area should be determined by the number of vehicles passing the traffic light in a left-turning phase at the intersection. The results can help the implementation and application of pre-signal in real traffic system.

Keywords: Urban traffic system; Pre-signal; Macroscopic fundamental diagram (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437118302577
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:503:y:2018:i:c:p:71-85

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2018.02.170

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().