Design Method of U-Turn between Adjacent Intersections for Bus Priority

Abstract

One of primary objectives of bus priority control is to decrease bus delays before signals. Reducing the number of signal phases is an efficient method for decreasing signal delays. Commonly, buses and through movements are in the same phase, so prohibiting left turn phases at congested intersections is a valuable choice for cutting down on bus delays. Meanwhile, finding an alternative route for left turn movement is also important. Firstly, the optimal cycle length model and delay calculation model proposed by Webster is employed to analyze the effect of left turn movements on through bus movements. Secondly, the coordination design method of left turn phase between adjacent intersections is proposed. A field network, the Beiyuan Road of Ji'nan city, where bus exclusive lanes are located in median, is applied to test above proposed method. A high-performance microscopic traffic simulation program, VISSIM, is adopted to evaluate the Coordination Design of the Left Turn Phase concept. The results show that the method can decrease the delay of buses and motor traffic and can release congestion of the intersection, while the effect to the system is slight.