Optimizing signal timing of the arterial‐branch intersection: A fuzzy control and nonlinear programming approach

Abstract

AbstractArterial‐branch intersections are important components of urban road network but are greatly ignored of its role in maintaining an efficient traffic operation in regional networks. Arterial‐branch intersections are generally featured with significant fluctuations in the flow ratio of the branch road to the arterial road. So, in order to adapt the signal timing to this kind of intersection, an optimization control algorithm based on fuzzy control and nonlinear programming (FCNP) was proposed. To verify this optimization algorithm, the Python and Vissim joint simulation was employed. Prior to the simulation, traffic flow data were collected in 12 consecutive hours at an arterial‐branch intersection in China. The simulation results show that, after signal timing optimization with FCNP, the average vehicle queue length and delay reduced 25.8% and 17.3%, respectively, when compared with the performance of the traffic‐actuated control, which also outperformed previous equivalent research. Besides, the overall operation of the intersection was verified to be greatly improved and stabilized by using the proposed algorithm. The findings of this study provide a reasonable solution of distributing the right‐of‐way at arterial‐branch intersections and suggest the advantage of combining fuzzy control and nonlinear programming in dealing with the signal timing optimization.