Coordinated Transit Signal Priority Model Considering Stochastic Bus Arrival Time

Abstract

This paper presents an advanced transit signal priority (ATSP) control model that considers bus progression at downstream intersections when giving priority at upstream intersections and stochastic bus arrival times. The ATSP control model is applicable to arterials with bus lanes. At the center of the ATSP control model is a stochastic programming model formulated to find the optimum priority strategies at each intersection of interest, which minimize bus delays while having the least negative impact on general traffic. The uncertainty in bus arrivals is taken into account by considering stochastic bus dwell times. The ATSP control is implemented in a traffic micro-simulation environment and compared with conventional transit signal priority (CTSP) control. Extensive simulation experiments are conducted with different traffic congestion levels, bus headway levels, and dwell-time distributions. Results show that the ATSP control generates an additional reduction in bus delay of around 10% when compared to the CTSP control.