Travel Time Reliability-Based Signal Timing Optimization for Urban Road Traffic Network Control

Esam Hafez Abdelhameed,Zhengfeng Ma,Darong Huang,Changguang Li,Jianhua Guo

doi:10.1155/2020/8898062

Esam Hafez Abdelhameed, Zhengfeng Ma + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8898062

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Abstract

Due to increasing traffic demand, many metropolitan areas are experiencing extensive traffic congestion, which demands for efficient traffic signal timing and optimization. However, conventional efficiency measure-based signal optimization cannot handle the ubiquitous uncertainty in the road networks, demanding for the incorporation of reliability measures into signal optimization, which is still in its early stage. Therefore, targeting this issue, based on the recent studies on recognizing travel time reliability (TRR) as an important reliability measure of road networks, a travel time reliability-based urban road traffic network signal timing optimization model is proposed in this paper, with the objective function to optimize a TTR measure, i.e., buffer time index. The proposed optimization model is solved using the heuristic particle swarm optimization approach. A case study is conducted using microscopic traffic simulation for a road network in the City of Nanjing, China. Results demonstrate that the proposed optimization model can improve travel time reliability of the road traffic network and the efficiency of the road traffic network as well. Future studies are recommended to expand the integration of travel time reliability into traffic signal timing optimization.

Highlights

Due to the increasing motorization and urbanization around the globe, congestion has become a pronounced phenomenon for many metropolitan areas (Huang et al 2017) [1]
Few studies have paid attention to optimize traffic signal timing based on travel time reliability, both for isolated intersections or network level signal timing optimization. erefore, the objective of this paper is to propose an urban road traffic network signal timing optimization model based on optimizing travel time reliability of the road network. e heuristic approach of particle swarm optimization is applied to solve the proposed model, and microscopic simulation is used in a case study to implement and validate the proposed model for a road network in the City of Nanjing, China, as an example
An urban traffic network signal timing optimization model is proposed in this paper to optimize the average buffer time index of all road segments in the network

Summary

Introduction

Due to the increasing motorization and urbanization around the globe, congestion has become a pronounced phenomenon for many metropolitan areas (Huang et al 2017) [1]. Due to many factors in the context of metropolitan areas, uncertainty is ubiquitous in urban transportation systems, and in addition to the conventional efficiency measures, the incorporation of reliability measures into traffic signal optimization to deal with traffic uncertainty is gaining increasing attention from different perspectives of the society. Few studies have paid attention to optimize traffic signal timing based on travel time reliability, both for isolated intersections or network level signal timing optimization. Erefore, the objective of this paper is to propose an urban road traffic network signal timing optimization model based on optimizing travel time reliability of the road network. The paper concludes with summaries and recommendations on future research

Literature Review

Proposed TTR-Based Signal Timing Model

Conclusions