Variability of Green Time to Discharge a Specified Number of Queued Vehicles at a Signalized Intersection

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the headway distribution of queued vehicles (less than 16 vehicles) at signalized intersections. Existing studies usually take the average statistics of headway at any queuing place. When different percentile points of statistical data are assigned to headway, the passing rate (the rate of all queued vehicles passing the stop line) under the ideal signal timing scheme varies. When selecting the mean value, the passing rate of a queue of fewer than 16 vehicles is no more than 65%. When selecting 75% as the percentile, the passing rate is up to 94%. The queue length also decides the assigned percentile of headway to ensure the passing rate reaches a certain level. The value assignation of headway directly affects lane capacity and start-up loss time. This paper provides a new perspective on parameter calibration and will make the signal timing algorithm method more effective.