Traffic Signal Optimization to Improve Sustainability: A Literature Review

Suhaib Alshayeb, Aleksandar Stevanovic (), Nikola Mitrovic and Elio Espino
Additional contact information
Suhaib Alshayeb: CHA Consulting, 8935 NW 35th Ln, Doral, FL 33172, USA
Aleksandar Stevanovic: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 341A Benedum Hall, 3700 O’Hara Street Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
Nikola Mitrovic: CHA Consulting, 8935 NW 35th Ln, Doral, FL 33172, USA
Elio Espino: CHA Consulting, 8935 NW 35th Ln, Doral, FL 33172, USA

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-24

Abstract: Optimizing traffic signals to improve traffic progression relies on minimizing mobility performance measures (e.g., delays and stops). However, delay and stop minimizations do not necessarily lead to minimal sustainability measures (e.g., fuel consumption and emissions). For that reason, researchers have focused, for decades, on integrating traffic models, signal optimization models, and fuel consumption and emissions models to minimize sustainability metrics while keeping acceptable levels of mobility metrics. Therefore, this paper reviews, classifies, and analyzes studies found in the literature regarding optimizing sustainable traffic signals. This paper provides researchers with a good starting point to further develop solutions which can address sustainable traffic control. To achieve that, this study details the most notable sustainable signal timing optimization studies from six perspectives: traffic models, fuel consumption and emissions models, optimization methods, objective functions, operating conditions, and reported sustainability savings. Outcomes of this research show that the previous studies deployed many combinations of elements from the six-perspective mentioned above, leading to a wide range of fuel consumption and emissions savings. The study also concludes that the available fuel consumption and emissions models are relatively old. Hence, future research is needed to develop new fuel consumption and emissions models based on recently collected data.

Keywords: traffic signal optimization; fuel consumption; emissions; objective function; traffic simulation; operating conditions; sustainability saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8452/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8452/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:22:p:8452-:d:970553

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().