Determining the Time-Dependent Trip Distribution in a Complex Intersection for Traffic Responsive Control

Abstract

The magnitude of partial flows from each entry to any exit of a complex intersection is a basic information for an efficient traffic responsive control of signalized intersections. However, in many cases these flows cannot be measured directly but must be estimated from vehicle counts at the entries and the exits. A new method for estimating these flows is presented here which not only evaluates the balance equations for the accumulated counts of entering and leaving volumes as previous methods have done but additionally makes use of an analysis of the time sequences of entering and leaving flows by correlation techniques. The method is applied to simulated and to real data and it is shown that fairly good estimates are obtained which are even capable to track time variations of the real flows. The computational effort is moderate and may be done by a microprocessor at the site of the intersection.