Paper No.

01 2288

Duplication for publication or sale is strictly prohibited Without prior written permission of the Transportation Research Board.

Title: CONTROL STRATEGY FOR OVERSATURATED

SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS

Authors: Zaher K. Khatib

Geoffrey A. Judd

Transportation Research Board 80th Annual Meeting January 7-11, 2001 Washington, D.C.

CONTROL STRATEGY FOR OVERSATURATED SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS

By

Zaher K. Khatib Civil Engineering Department College of Engineering University of Sharjah Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Tel: +971 6 505 0924, Fax: +971 6 558 5173 E-mail zkhatib@sharjah.ac.ae

And

Geoffrey A. Judd Kitteleson and Associates Portland, Oregon U.S.A.

November 2000

Paper accepted for presentation at the TRB 2001 Annual Meeting

CONTROL STRATEGY FOR OVERSATURATED SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS

Zaher K. Khatib and Geoffrey A. Judd
ABSTRACT The role of the vehicle is more important today than ever before in history, and this importance has led to congestion in metropolitan areas in some cases, so severe that there is gridlock in the center of the business districts. Several methods currently exist to reduce delays and keep traffic flowing, but most of these methods are very expensive and in some instances not feasible. The goal of this research is to generate methodology to alleviate congestion at signalized intersections by adjusting signal-timing parameters. This methodology involves using linear optimization of maximum green intervals to account for the oversaturated traffic condition. The ultimate goal is to have a model that will allow the maximum amount of traffic flow through any number of intersections along an arterial. This is can be accomplished by increasing the maximum green intervals, optimizing the phasing pattern, managing the internal queue, and maintaining the operation for the non-saturated movements. To verify the linearly optimized signal-timing scheme, simulations of the intersections using CORSIM, a microscopic-based program that produces several important output results such as delay and throughput volumes were conducted. The comparison between pre-optimized operation and post-optimized operation provided a basis to support the validity of this work. The final formulation developed can be applied to any oversaturated system by inputting the geometry, traffic, and initial signalization parameters and optimizing the oversaturated movements. Once these strategies are applied, a decrease in the oversaturation, a decrease in the delay per vehicle and an increase in the amount of traffic flowing through a signalized arterial were observed.

CONTROL STRATEGY FOR OVERSATURATED SIGNALIZED INTERSECTIONS

Zaher K. Khatib and Geoffrey A. Judd
BACKGROUND In most urbanized areas, the surface transportation network operates at capacity or over-capacity, at least during the morning and evening peak hours. Several methods currently exist to reduce delays and keep traffic flowing, but most of these methods are very expensive and in some instances not feasible due to the limitations of the surrounding area. Capacity relates to the performance of a system, and how it will respond to a given amount of traffic flow. Capacity for existing conditions of an intersection is defined as the maximum amount of traffic that will be allowed through the intersection (1). Therefore, over-capacity operation of any system is the point where the arrival rate is larger than the maximum hourly rate of departure. This generates large queue lengths that are not dissipated during the green phase of the signal and therefore the drivers using the system will experience excessive delay. Capacity is also related to the saturation flow rate. The saturation flow rate is that flow rate which would be equal to the capacity of the lane group if the signal phase were always green (1). The saturation flow rate decreases as a result of the lost times created by the changing of phases and some other factors relating to the operation of the intersection. Therefore, a flow is oversaturated if it exceeds this maximum flow rate. These two concepts are related by the arrival flow rate, but the capacity is the absolute maximum flow that can discharge from the intersection. This means that the number of vehicles leaving the system can only be as large as the capacity of the system. When an intersection is oversaturated, the goal is to allow the higher volume approaches to discharge more traffic than the lower volume approaches, so that the intersection can return to a normal operating condition as quickly as possible. A new procedure for the optimization of the throughput of the vehicles in the system is presented here, based upon queuing theory analysis. The main idea is to change the maximum green times, or the force-off times, to provide a means for the traffic to more effectively leave the system. The process involves the optimization of the phase sequence as well as the phase timing parameters for each of the intersections along the arterial. The new procedure should maximize the throughput of the vehicles in the system, and therefore reduce this congestion within the system. In order to allow more traffic to flow through the intersection there needs to be an increase in the capacity of the intersection. By increasing the capacity of the intersection, the discharge rate is increased, reducing congestion. There are two major methods of increasing the capacity of an intersection: altering the geometric parameters or altering the traffic elements. The primary traffic elements of an intersection are traffic flow and signalization.

Khatib & Judd

Geometric The geometric options are very limited in most metropolitan areas, due to the limited amount of space to add lanes or widen roads, and often this option is not practical, either financially or just because of the intersection layout within the Central Business District (CBD). Two possible geometric options would be to provide an additional lane or to adjust the storage lengths for the turning bays. The geometric factors are the fixed constraints to the approach of optimizing the signal timing taken in this paper. It is important to take them into consideration, since these factors create part of the problem of the oversaturation. Traffic Flow The traffic flow elements include traffic volume, traffic-turning movements, arrival patterns, departure patterns, traffic distribution, and secondary flow. The traffic-turning volumes are defined by the arrival rate per hour for each movement at the intersection. The arrival patterns affect intersection performance, since there is a possibility of platoons affecting the progression along the arterial. This is the same for the departure patterns, and the effect that the departure has upon the downstream intersections. The traffic distribution for the traffic stream affects how the flow along the arterial is modeled. The percent of heavy vehicles in the traffic stream can affect the saturation flow rates for the intersections. The secondary flow is the volume of traffic that is moving during the non-coordinated phases, the phases serving the cross streets. Signalization The signal timing elements include cycle length, number and sequence of phases, phase lengths, queue clearance time, and left-turn treatments at each intersection. There are two types of controllers used for signalized intersections, fixed-timed and actuated (2, 3, 4). Both types of controllers can be coordinated to allow the flow of platoons through the system. Coordination is usually used in a fixed-time traffic controller, and is a way to allow a platoon of vehicles to travel through the system without stopping. In setting the coordination for a system, the travel time between the intersections and the mid-block volume is taken into account. The travel time and initial queues formed at the next intersection are factored into the calculation of the offset for a given arterial of signalized intersections. Then an offset time is determined and implemented into the controller. An actuated controller has a variable amount of green time that shifts between a minimum green and maximum green inputted into the controller unit. The minimum green is required to allow a certain number of vehicles waiting at the stop bar to pass through the intersection. In order to reach the maximum green, there are some extension times that are based upon the traffic volume arriving at the intersection. The traffic volume is known by the use of detectors that sense the traffic arriving at the intersection. Once the maximum green time is achieved, the phase will end regardless of the traffic demand for that phase, but the phase may also end earlier if there is less traffic demand (gap out). The signal phasing for an actuated controller is not a preset scheme, and depends upon the traffic arriving at the various approaches of the intersection. This type of control is known as dual-ring operation, and allows the signal to select the most efficient scheme during normal operation. The idea is that movements 1, 2, 5, and 6 in Figure 1 are able to move

during the first part of the cycle, but they all must have ended before movements 3, 4, 7, and 8 can begin.

Movement 1

Movement 2

Movement 3

Movement 4

Movement 5

Movement 6

Barrier

Movement 7

Movement 8

Figure 1 Movement diagram In order to achieve the best possible traffic operation, all of the above elements of the traffic operation should be incorporated simultaneously. In a system with more than one intersection, if the critical degree of saturation for one intersection approaches unity, then the whole system will break down due to the spillback effect from that oversaturated intersection. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as gridlock, in urbanized areas. This spillback effect is also related to an occurrence known as starvation. Both are explained in the following sections. Spillback The spillback phenomenon at a signalized intersection is what occurs when there is a high volume of traffic for a particular movement and it queues into the previous intersection. Having more demand than can be stored on an approach creates this spillback problem. It is important to note this problem, since this will create a situation in which the upstream signal will not be able to allow traffic to enter the intersection. This spillback affects the traffic proceeding to the downstream intersection and the cross street traffic that cannot proceed through the intersection. Overall, spillback generates a long delay for the vehicles on all of the approaches affected, since no traffic is able to flow through the intersection. This also is unsafe since emergency vehicles are blocked from proceeding through the intersection. The left-turning movement may also cause this spillback effect if it spills out of the storage area, affecting the through movement from reaching the stop bar. This would lead to a starvation for the through movements. Figure 2 shows a drawing of an extreme case of spillback from an intersection.

Barrier

Figure 2 Spillback on the arterial There are two general cases that might cause the spillback at an intersection. The first case is one where the intersections are so closely spaced that even normal amounts of traffic generate queues that can build up to the end of the block during the red phase. This is a geometric problem, and not easily corrected by signal timing. It can, however, be alleviated by running the intersections as a pair, and allowing the traffic to proceed as if it were a single intersection (5). This is a common type of intersection at ramp junctions for a freeway. These types of intersections tend to create the problem of spillback simply because there is not enough space to store the accumulated vehicles. Therefore, the goal is to move vehicles out of the internal section of the arterial to alleviate the congestion. The second case deals with the signal timings for the intersections and the arterial coordination. This could be that the green time is too short for the movements, or that the offsets between the two intersections are not properly timed. This problem could be a major factor in the spillback phenomenon. This is due to the fact that if the traffic arrives before the signal has a chance to clear the previous queue there will be some spillback to affect the intersection that might transfer into another cycle. Also, if the green time doesnt allow for enough traffic to proceed through the intersection during the green phase, the queue will continue to grow. Thus, the spillback effect will tend to continue after the peak hour is over, since the traffic cannot move efficiently. The goal of the research presented in this paper is optimizing the throughput of the intersections, thus reducing the spillback effect. Starvation Starvation at a signalized intersection occurs when there is not enough traffic for a particular movement during the green time for that movement. This is an important problem to discuss when dealing with oversaturated intersections, since this green time will essentially be wasted. This wasted green time could be used to accommodate other movements at the intersection. This would be helpful if one of the approaches on the cross street were approaching capacity, since it would allow the traffic to flow on this approach. Also, by changing the upstream signal timings to accommodate the flow of the traffic into the downstream intersection, starvation could be eliminated, thus reducing the amount of wasted green time at the intersection and raising the overall capacity. Figure 3 shows the left-turning traffic spilling back into the through lanes blocking the through traffic, creating starvation for the through traffic green.

Figure 3 Starvation caused by left-turn spillback There are two cases that might cause this starvation at the intersection. The first is when the queue from a left-turning movement is large enough to block the flow of the through traffic, and therefore the through movement is not using the allocated green. This problem occurs when there is either a shared left-turn lane with the through movement, or the left-turn bay does not have enough storage capacity. In the first scenario there is little that can be done to move the traffic through the intersection. The options available to alleviate part of this problem are to construct a new left-turn lane, switch to split phasing, or prohibit left-turns at this intersection. The second scenario presents more of a problem, since there is already a left-turn bay present. In this situation the volume of the left-turn traffic is greater than can be stored in the bay. One option to correct this problem is to increase the time for an exclusive left-turn phase. The second case, upstream intersections blocking traffic, occurs when the previous intersections create situations that limit the flow of the traffic into the downstream intersections. The green time for the downstream intersection is then wasted, since no traffic is flowing through the intersection. There are two ways that the previous intersection can cause the blockage. The first is described above with a left-turning bay becoming full and blocking the through traffic. The correction procedures are described above. The second would be that the cross street is experiencing a spillback effect and blocking the arterial traffic. The correction for this is to optimize the cross street traffic signals to allow more vehicles to get through, so there is less congestion. The green time wasted during starvation is acting as if the signals were in the red phase (6), and the time is lost during that cycle. This concept will only work if a cycle-by-cycle analysis is performed. Upon analysis of the queue in a cycle-by-cycle fashion, there are the fluctuations between starvation and spillback. There are also movements that will experience the starvation in the peak period analysis. Both spillback and starvation create wasted time for the intersection, and the goal is to reduce this time to make the signal operate more efficiently.

CURRENT METHODOLOGIES Some of the current methods to accommodate oversaturated intersections are generally based upon the equations used for under-saturated conditions and are not appropriate for the

oversaturated cases. In some cases these methods limit the accessibility of the arterial, or increase the oversaturation along the arterial. One of the existing methods used to analyze oversaturated intersections is calculating the control delay of the intersection and then, by trial and error, reducing this control delay for the drivers, to allow better operation of the signal. After the control delay is calculated or observed, the traffic engineer tries to manipulate the traffic control parameters inside the traffic controller in order to efficiently operate the signalized intersection (2). This process is time consuming, expensive and is not the most efficient way to operate the signal. Another common method is using a software program, such as TRANSYT-7F or PASSER II-90, to coordinate the oversaturated signals (5). These tools are developed for under-saturated conditions and are not appropriate for the oversaturated conditions. The results obtained from these programs supply a design that may lead to inefficient operation of the arterial. This inefficiency may lengthen the time of the duration of the congestion along the arterial. Therefore this technique would create more congestion, which is contradictory to the goal of operation during congestion. There are very few operational methods that can handle the arterial when it is near or over-capacity. An alternative method for handling oversaturation is using approaches such as traffic demand management (TDM), in which regulations permit or prohibit certain movements in the system during the oversaturated periods. An example of TDM would be to prohibit left-turning movements during the peak periods on the arterial at every other intersection. This prohibition of left-turning movements reduces the potential conflicts at the intersection. Another option to reduce the congestion is a reversible lane that changes direction based upon whether it is the morning or evening peak period. This adds extra capacity by increasing the number of lanes in the system without changing the road geometry. The drawback of TDM schemes is that prohibiting certain movements causes a loss of serviceability on the arterial. Currently, there are very few options when an arterial becomes oversaturated. The methods that are being used are based upon the principles for normal operations, and will tend to exacerbate the oversaturation along the arterial. The proposed methodology in this paper is able to optimize the signal timing parameters to allow for better operation of oversaturated arterial.

LITERATURE REVIEW Isolated Intersection Kuzbari has investigated the oversaturation problem for an isolated intersection with the assumption that there are only two movements in an oversaturated condition (7). He uses some queue management strategies to determine the green times for the movements. Kuzbari uses a fixed phasing scheme, which is the standard two-phase (north-south movements followed by east-west movements) as his control strategy. He points out that the typical traffic counts are taken from the discharge side of the approach, and does not truly reflect the actual demand of the intersection, only the service for that intersection.

The formulation presented by Kuzbari maximizes the vehicular discharge, throughput, for the oversaturated movements at the intersection. The principle behind his formulation is that by maximizing the departure rate for the oversaturated movements, then the total vehicles in queue, the length of oversaturation, and the queued delay will all be minimized. Paired Intersections The queue management principles between intersections were addressed by Rouphail and Akcelik (8). They analyzed the performance of the traffic at paired signalized intersections. Paired signalized intersections are intersections in which the distance between the two intersections is small, such as diamond interchanges. They provided some insight into the queue interaction, and how this queue affects the upstream intersection. The first step in the Rouphail and Akcelik algorithm is to apply the full saturation flow rates to all approaches, ignoring the queue limitations of the system. The next step is to compute the interfering queue length and the maximum back of queue length for the internal links. With these values, the blocking queue length and the critical upstream queue length can be computed. Some queue criteria are tested to check if any spillback into the upstream intersections has developed. If there is spillback, the saturation flow rate for the upstream intersection is reduced to limit the traffic into the internal links. The queue limitations are recomputed and checked once again. If there is still spillback at the intersection pair, the queue is carried downstream to the next intersection. The process is repeated, modifying the saturation flow rates for each intersection. The final step is to assess the system performance and compute the throughput and travel time for the system. Queue Management Kim and Messer (5) discussed the oversaturation issue from the standpoint of queue management strategies. These strategies require that the signal timing change once a set maximum back of queue be obtained, in order to prevent spillback. The goal is also to maximize the vehicle discharge from the system. The objective function, though, only focused on the external links of the system, since the intersections are very closely spaced. They point out that, by maximizing the vehicle discharge, the travel time should be minimized. Kim and Messer described that if the two intersections are very closely spaced, such as in a diamond interchange, these intersections can be equivalently operated as a single intersection. The idea is that in order to maximize the vehicle discharge from the system the signals would run phasing schemes with a zero offset. Also, since the intersections are so closely spaced, there is very little storage space between the intersections and therefore all of the traffic should be serviced by both intersections at the same time. The queue management strategy was integrated into the green allocation for the external phases at the two intersections. There were two methods of allocating the green times. The first method was simply the green time of the approach divided by the flow ratio for the movement. This first method is the more conventional way of allocating the green splits according to the traffic flow.

This method works well when the arterial system is not saturated or when the queue lengths are not critical. The second method based the green allocation upon the external queue lengths. This method used a queue growth function divided by the length of the approach, referred to as the fill-up ratio. This queue growth function is a function of the cycle length, green times, arrival volume, and saturation flow rate. The idea behind this method is that the green time is restricted by the other oversaturated movements queue length, and will allocate the green based upon these queue lengths. This method relates the queue length on the approaches with the green times. A version of this queue management technique is being applied to the model presented in this paper. Kim and Messer suggested that the measures of effectiveness (MOE) that will be used in the evaluation would be the total travel time and the vehicle discharge. Both of these are the best representations for an oversaturated system, since the goal will be to move traffic out of this congested zone. The delay, a typical MOE, is not representative of an oversaturated system, since by optimizing the oversaturated movements it will increase the delay for the non-saturated movements. This is due to the shift in the amount of green allocated to the oversaturated movements. Another good reason to use the vehicle discharge as a MOE is that it is the main objective for oversaturated conditions. The number of vehicles leaving the system indicates the effectiveness of the system for the signal timing being optimized at the intersection, although for the oversaturated condition the intersection is generally evaluated as the whole. The movements MOE are aggregated by a weighted average of the demand flows for each of the movements, to generate the overall average intersection MOE. Multiple Oversaturated Intersections Abu-Lebdeh and Benekohal (6) have generated a formulation for multiple oversaturated intersections along an arterial. The main goal for the formulation presented was to control the queue formation and dissipation along the arterial. The methodology also was concerned about the spillback effect on upstream signals. They discussed the characteristics of the oversaturated flow condition. The main characteristics are that the flows are not steady state, the queue buildup increases the upstream departure headway, and the large queues formed create a de facto red condition for the remaining traffic. Once again, the idea was to maximize the throughput of the system by changing the traffic control parameters. Some of the results obtained from the Abu-Lebdeh and Benekohal were that the green for the arterial and side streets changed over the study period. Their formulation was a dynamic, time dependant model, resulting from the use of the genetic algorithms. Since the method used was dynamic it did not allow for much incorporation into the model being proposed by this paper. It did, however, show that there is a cycle-by-cycle fluctuation of the oversaturation, and working with this dynamic model could help to mimic this fluctuation. Phasing Sequence The next step is to find an optimal phasing pattern for an oversaturated system. Since this system is running oversaturated, the green times will either reach the maximum green or a forceoff point. Therefore the system tends to run a predictable phasing pattern and the green times for each phase can be predicted. The optimal phasing pattern could be integrated into the linear

program and an optimal scheme would be achieved. Rouphail and Khatib (9) had incorporated a technique to optimize the phasing pattern. This optimized phasing pattern is defined by eight movements shown in Figure 1, optimized based upon the arrival volume for each movements. Out of these eight movements a maximum of six phases can be selected, representing an optimal phasing pattern. Each of these phases may be incorporated, but they may also be skipped if there is a lack of demand for a particular phase. The first phase, if required, will be the dual left turning movements for the arterial, followed by one of the two split phases (chosen by the higher volume), followed by the through movements, and then this is repeated for the cross streets. The optimization provides the selection for each of these phases, and then it is manipulated into the phase sequence. A diagrammatic representation of the phasing sequence is shown below, in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Phase sequencing The phase optimization has a basic scheme that was adopted to provide the most efficient method of moving traffic in oversaturated conditions. This method of operation is shown to be very effective in allowing the maximum amount of traffic to flow through the intersection. The phasing scheme above is required so that the left-turning vehicles are able to leave the system, since during an oversaturated condition there will not likely be large enough gaps for the vehicles to utilize.

METHODOLOGY The proposed linear formulation contains three levels of detail required in the model: System, Zonal, and Local. The system level items are those that pertain to the entire system and are common throughout the system. Such items in this level include the number of intersections, the throughput, the average saturation headways, the possible background cycle lengths and the minimum green and clearance intervals. The zonal level pertains to pairs of intersections that are next to each other. Such items in this level include the offsets, queue lengths, storage capacity, link and block lengths and the number of lanes. The final level is the local level, which pertains to each individual intersection. This level includes such things as the lane designations, number of approaches, arrival demand, discharge volume, green splits, and the phasing sequence and timings.

Linear Programming Formulation For the optimization of the objective function a program called LINDO (Linear, INteractive, and Discrete Optimizer) was used in this study. The objective function of the linear formulation is to maximize the vehicles leaving the system, and therefore reduce the congestion within the system. This is accomplished by multiplying the inverse of the average saturation headway (h) of the vehicles in the system by the green time (Gij) for each of the movements at the signalized intersections. The average headway values range between 1.8 and 2.2 seconds. 2.0 seconds was used for the case study. The green time is optimized for each movement. The general form for this objective function is shown below,
1 MAX ( * Gij ) h

Where i is the intersection number and j is the movement number. The i value has a range of 1 to N, the number of intersections, and the j value has a range from 1 to the number of movements at the intersection, maximum of eight. The movement numbers are shown in Figure 1. Green Time Allocation The first set of constraints in the model is used to assign the green for each movement based upon the arrival rates. This is done by relating a queue-growing function for a movement to the storage length for that movement at the intersection. This queue-growing function consists of the green times for that movement (Gij), the cycle length (C), the arrival rate (Vij), and the saturation flow rate (Sij). The equation for the queue-growing function is shown below.
Tij = Vij C Gij S ij

The green is split between the left-turning movements and through movements. The storage length on the denominator of the equations below represents either the storage length, for leftturn bays (SLij), or the effective block length for the through movements (EBLij). There are two sets of equations to define the green times. Below are these equations for the movements.
Ti1 T T T = i 3 = i5 = i 7 SLi1 SLi 3 SLi 5 SLi 7 Ti 2 Ti 4 Ti 6 Ti 8 = = = EBLi 2 EBLi 4 EBLi 6 EBLi 8

These equations lead to six different constraints to the model, each having the form shown below.
Ti 4 * EBLi 2 Ti 2 * EBLi 4 = 0

Critical Movements The next step is to find the critical movements at the intersection. In this step, binary variables are used to develop decision logic in the equation. These binary variables denote which movements are critical, and when optimized the critical movements are denoted by a value of one or zero, depending upon which of the movements is critical. The binary variable is the wij variable, with the lower case ij indicating the intersection and movement of interest. The identification of critical movements was conducted in pairs, 1-5, 2-6, 3-7, and 4-8. If the wij were equal to 1 then the ring one movement (1,2,3,4) of Figure 1 is a critical movement, otherwise, if the wij is equal to 0 then the ring two movement (5,6,7,8) is critical. There are two equations to constrain the binary variable and allow for the selection logic to properly choose the correct solution. A representative equation is shown below, which selects the critical movement between 2 or 6. From the linear formulation the two equations are shown below:
Vi 6 * wi1 Vi 2 Vi 2 * wi1 Vi 2 Vi 6

Phase Selection In this step, the phases are selected based on the critical V/S ratios. These constraints are to minimize the number of phases selected as discussed earlier. Below are the equations for the phase selections.

Dual Left for East-West PHF * Pi1 + PHF * Pi2 >= Vi5 / Si5 PHF * Pi1 + PHF * Pi4 >= Vi1 / Si1 Dual Left for North-South PHF * Pi5 + PHF * Pi6 >= Vi3 / Si3 PHF * Pi5 + PHF * Pi8 >= Vi7 / Si7

Thru Phases for East-West PHF * Pi2 + PHF * Pi3 >= Vi2 / Si2 PHF * Pi3 + PHF * Pi4 >= Vi6 / Si6 Thru phases for North-South PHF * Pi6 + PHF * Pi7 >= Vi8 / Si8 PHF * Pi7 + PHF * Pi8 >= Vi4 / Si4

Where PHF is the peak hour factor and Pik is the phase split, where the index k represents pair of movements from Figure 4. Phase k Movements j 1 1&5 2 2&5 3 2&6 4 1&6 5 3&7 6 3&8 7 4&8 8 4&7

Discharge Rates The next thing to be formulated is the discharge rates. The discharge rate is a zonal constraint, between intersections. These constraints are used for internal queue management. The idea is that the red time for a phase should be short enough to accommodate the storage capacity for either intersection approach. The first constraint takes into account the downstream storage capacity, by using a weighted average of the storage capacities. This constraint is used as a means to control the discharge of the traffic at the intersection of interest and limits the queue that would be developed at the downstream intersection. The total number of vehicles in this

discharge calculation is determined through several factors that are held as constants. An example of the equation for the discharge rate is shown below,
C Gi 6 V( i +1) 6 V( i +1) 6 + V( i +1)1 * SCTH ( i +1) h + V( i +1)1 V( i +1) 6 + V( i +1)1 * SC LT ( i +1) h

Where Vij is the arrival rate in vehicles per second, C is the cycle length, Gij is the green time, h is the average saturation headway, and SCij is the storage capacity for the movement in number of vehicles. This formulation accounts for the accumulation of vehicles in the storage area, and allows these vehicles to release from the intersection before setting the discharge rate to the arrival rate. The SCij is an input parameter based upon the geometry of the system, computed by the equation below.
NLTH * EBLi For through movements Avg. veh. Length NLLT * SLi SC LT ( i ) = For left turn movements Avg. veh. Length SCTH ( i ) =

Where EBLi is the effective block length, NLTh or LT is the number of lanes in the through (TH) or left-turn (LT) movement, and SLi is the storage length. The other constraint was used to control the internal queues, which accounts for the storage capacity and the initial queue at the intersection of interest. This constraint considers the storage capacity of each movement and the departure rate for that movement. This sets a lower bound on the discharge rate required to serve as much of the existing queue as possible.

1 C Gij * SCij h
The next constraint is used to further restrict the internal queues, based upon the discharge rates for each of the movements. This constraint is used only for the arterial, since it only concerns the amount of traffic that is on the links between the two intersections. The equation is based upon the idea of input minus output equals the storage. The equation is shown below.
Gi 6 Gi 3 G( i +1) 6 G(i +1)1 + SCTH ( i ) Vi 6 Vi 3 V( i +1) 6 V( i +1)1

The above constraints are used to make certain that the internal queues are not exceeding the effective block length set as some percentage of the full block length. Define Cycle Length The final step is to define a cycle length for the system. The sum of each of the rings in the dual ring controller defines the cycle length. Two summations are used to constrain the cycle length. The equations are shown below:

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Gi1 + Gi 2 + Gi 3 + Gi 4 C 0 Gi 5 + Gi 6 + Gi 7 + Gi 8 C 0

The minimum green times are based upon pedestrian clearances or minimum green initial intervals. The cycle length is bounded to provide a more effective operation and to reduce the amount of delay incurred by the red phase. Otherwise, the cycle length would be an unreasonable length and would have an extraordinarily high delay.

EVALUATION The performance of the arterial was examined before and after optimization. The simulation was performed by CORSIM, a microscopic-based program (12). By using the simulation model, the performance of the intersection with the new signal timing strategy was reviewed and compared with the performance of the original intersection signal timings. The original signal timings were determined by using the output from the controllers in the field, using the force-off times as the green time. These force-off times were set based upon techniques developed for undersaturated conditions, but when the arterial becomes over-saturated these timings may not be appropriate. The major area of interest in the output of the simulation model is the total travel time and the traffic volume of the system. One important note for this study is that the MOE are compared on the entire system In other words, there might be some approaches in which the performance will degrade, while the performance of others will improve. The overall improvement will outweigh the degradation. Figure 5 below shows a sample network. Outside the shaded area in Figure 5 is where the system wide MOEs are taken, namely discharge for the external movements. By increasing the discharge there should be fewer vehicles within the system (inside the shaded area, internal movements) therefore less congestion. There are also internal measurements taken, but the focus is upon the approaches leaving the system.

Figure 5 External versus internal movements

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Case Study The case study is adopted from Idaho Falls, Idaho. There are five closely spaced intersections on an arterial (Broadway Street), operating in a coordinated-actuated system. There are also another seven intersections that are contributing to this oversaturation. Broadway Street is a major thoroughfare for the city of Idaho Falls, and therefore during the morning and evening peak hours become congested. Figure 6 shows a representation of the geometric layout of the arterial of interest. There is a network of streets that join to the cross-streets, not shown, but since the focus is the arterial it is the only portion shown on the figure. The five intersections off of Broadway Street, in order from the east to the west, are (1) Yellowstone Avenue, (2) Shoup Avenue, (3) Park Avenue, (4) Capital Avenue, and (5) Memorial Drive. Table 1 summarizes the arrival volumes.

8-1-3

6-3

8-3 Phasing Sequence

6-3

7-5-1-3

Figure 6 Geometric layout of downtown Idaho Falls, Idaho

Table 1 Volumes for the Five Intersections (vph) Volumes Vij for Intersection i Intersection 1 Intersection 2 Intersection 3 Intersection 4 Intersection 5 Vi1 222 94 222 278 0 Vi2 778 1667 667 944 3333 Vi3 67 83 0 389 0 Vi4 1167 0 461 0 472 Vi5 233 67 0 167 194 Vi6 306 722 833 1222 1111 Vi7 67 0 222 0 444 Vi8 322 583 0 1278 0

Simulate the Intersections After completing the formulation and performing an optimization, the next step is to simulate the intersections for evaluation. There are two simulations performed for each intersection, pre- and post-optimization. The model was tested for one, two, and five intersections along an arterial.

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Isolated Intersection Analysis The first evaluation was to use the proposed methodology with an isolated intersection with several movements in an oversaturated condition. The links that are approaching the system are separated from the links leaving the system. In Figure 6, node number 1 is the intersection of interest, Broadway and Yellowstone. This intersection was chosen because it had all eight movements. The intersection was simulated to show the current existing conditions of the system, and then the volumes were used in the linear formulation to be optimized. Table 2 shows the change in the signalization parameters between the pre- and post-optimization. Table 2 Pre- and Post-Optimized Signal Timing for Isolated Intersection Phase/Movement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pre-optimized Green 16 31 26 46 16 31 26 46 Post-optimized Green 42 40 13 60 44 16 13 16

For this first case study the travel time and volumes were averaged for both the entering and exiting traffic. The average pre-optimized total travel time (TTT) entering was 205.6 seconds per vehicle and the average TTT exiting was 24.6 seconds per vehicle. The average postoptimized TTT entering was 95.7 seconds and the average TTT exiting was 25.1 seconds. The TTT entering decreased by 53.4%, and there was a 2.0% increase in the TTT exiting. The average pre-optimized volume entering was 564 vehicles per hour and average volume exiting was 568 vehicles per hour. The average post-optimized volume entering was 693 vehicles per hour, and the average volume exiting was 690 vehicles per hour. The volume entering increased by 22.9%, and the volume exiting increased by 21.5%. The overall system-wide performance results showed that the pre-optimized time was 115.1, and the volume was 566. The postoptimized system-wide performance results showed that the time was 60.4, and the volume was 692. The percent change for each of those was a 47.5 decrease in TTT and a 22.3% increase in the volume. While these results are for only one intersection, the basis for the optimization procedure shows that there is a good foundation to perform further tests on more intersections. Two Intersections Analysis The distance between the first two intersections was 110 m (360 feet). There is a high probability of queue spillback at this distance; therefore the internal queue management can be tested. Table 3 presents the analysis results for the two intersections scenario.

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Table 3 Two Intersections Analysis Broadway and Yellowstone PrePostMovement optimized optimized 1 15 42 2 30 40 3 25 13 4 25 60 5 15 44 6 30 16 7 25 13 8 25 16 Broadway and Shoup PrePostMovement optimized optimized 1 30 36 2 30 90 3 20 54 4 0 0 5 30 36 6 30 38 7 0 0 8 20 85

Once several simulations were performed, the results were averaged and compared, and there seemed to be an increase in the operational performance of the intersections. For this paired intersection arterial, three areas were compared - the entering links, the exiting links, and the internal links. For the pre-optimized intersections the average TTT of vehicles entering the system was 312.5 seconds per vehicle and the average volume was 510 vehicles per hour. The average TTT of vehicles exiting the system was 24.6 seconds per vehicle and the volume was 414 vehicles per hour. For the internal links the average TTT was 91.9 seconds per vehicle and the volume was 642 vehicles per hour. For the post-optimized intersections the average TTT of the vehicles entering the system was 291.3 seconds per vehicle and the volume was 567 vehicles per hour. This was a 6.8% decrease in average TTT, and 11.2% increase in the average volume. The average TTT of vehicles exiting the system was 25.0 seconds per vehicle and the volume was 475 vehicles per hour. There was an increase in the average TTT of 1.6%, and the volume increased 14.7%. For the internal links the average TTT was 101.3 seconds per vehicle and the volume was 620 vehicles per hour. This was a 10.2% increase in average TTT, and 3.4% decrease in the average volume. The degradation of the internal links average TTT and volume created some concern about what was happening in the system. The internal queues were being minimized in the formulation, so that was taken into consideration. The overall system performance was compared between the pre- and post-optimized scenarios. The results show that for the pre-optimized TTT is 145.7 seconds per vehicle and the volume is 486 vehicles per hour. The post-optimized TTT is 139.2 seconds per vehicle and the volume is 533 vehicles per hour. This is a 4.5% decrease in the TTT and a 9.7% increase in the average volume in the system.

Five Intersections Analysis The first step in this case study was to optimize the signal timings for the five oversaturated intersections. Using these intersections in the optimization and simulation models produced the following results. Table 4 shows the maximum green times for each of the movements at each intersection.

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Intersection Movement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Table 4 Maximum Green Times for all 5 Intersections #1 #2 #3 #4 Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post 15 49 30 59 30 4 30 7 30 42 30 27 30 85 30 49 25 4 20 4 0 0 20 44 25 62 0 0 20 11 0 0 15 50 30 11 0 0 30 0 30 4 30 4 30 4 30 75 25 4 0 0 20 96 0 0 25 100 20 75 0 0 20 25

#5 Pre 0 30 0 15 30 30 15 0 Post 0 44 0 4 4 4 4 0

The analysis of the five intersections segment focused on the overall system averages, to determine the effect of the new timing plan on the arterial performance. The average total travel time for the entire system in the pre-optimized condition was 91.9 seconds per vehicle, with 357 vehicles per hour. The post-optimized average total travel time was 65.3 seconds per vehicle, with 431 vehicles per hour. This is a decrease of 29% for the average total travel time and an increase of 21% for the average volume. Since this was an oversaturated arterial there was little progression through the entire system, but some traffic was able to progress through two intersections in one green phase. This showed that some of the queue management techniques implemented in the formulation have provided the appropriate control for the arterial.

RECOMMENDATIONS and CONCLUSIONS The testing of this methodology in the field has not been attempted, but the simulation modeling of it shows an increase in the operational performance on the arterial. The oversaturation problem is becoming more important as the volume of traffic in cities grows, and could be beneficial to helping control some of the congestion in major cities. The proposed methodology has been developed based on queuing theory principles and some mathematical approximations. In summary, the key findings are that, by using the methodology proposed in this research, the operational performance of an oversaturated arterial can be greatly improved. With this methodology, any oversaturated system can have an improved quality of service during the peak periods. While this might not altogether eliminate the oversaturation, it does provide a more effective means of processing the vehicles through the system. It should be noted that, since the focus was upon the arterial, the improvement of service along the arterial created some degradation of the quality of service provided to the cross-street traffic. In the optimization of the phase timings and cycle length, the capacity would also be optimized, since the capacity is directly proportional to the green ratio. This provided some challenges, and it would need further investigation to see the effects of the changing capacity upon the linear optimization. This process would be an iterative one, in which the linear program is used upon the existing conditions in order to get the new phase times. Then the capacity is determined, and the model is used again to see the effects upon the capacity.

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The results obtained through this study suggest that using a model that optimizes the throughput of vehicles in the system provides an efficient method to operate an oversaturated arterial. Also, incorporating the internal queue management techniques helps to prevent the queue spillback effect upon upstream intersections. Further investigation into this model would need to be accomplished before it would be ready to try in the field. This work would include different intersections, and larger networks.

REFERENCES 1. Highway Capacity Manual: Special Report 209, 3rd Edition. Transportation Research Board. National Research Council. Washington, DC. (1997). 2. Roess, Roger, McShane, William, and Prassas, Elena. Traffic Engineering. 2nd Edition. Prentice Hall Inc. (1998). 3. Traffic Control Systems Handbook. FHWA, U.S. Department of Transportation. Publication Number FHWA-SA-95-032. (February 1996). 4. Pline, J.L. Traffic Engineering Handbook, 4th Edition. Institute of Transportation Engineering. Washington DC, (1992). 5. Kim, Youngchan, and Messer, Carroll, J. Traffic Signal Timing Models for Oversaturated Signalized Interchanges. Research Report 1148-2. Texas Transportation Institute. Austin, Texas. (1992). 6. Abu-Lebdah, G., and Benekohal, R. Development of Traffic Control and Queue Management Procedures for Oversaturated Arterials. Transportation Research Record 1603. Transportation Research Board. National Research Council. Washington, DC. (1997). 7. Kuzbari, Ray. Linear Programming Optimization of Actuated Signal Timings under Oversaturated Conditions. ITE Journal on the web (May 1998). 8. Rouphail, Nagui, and Akcelik, Rahmi. Paired Intersections: Initial Development of Platooned Arrival and Queue Interaction Models. Australian Road Research Board. (July 1991). 9. Rouphail, Nagui, and Khatib, Zaher. Arterial Signal Optimization Considering Left-Turn Control. Transportation Research Record 1456. Transportation Research Board. National Research Council. Washington, DC. (1994). 10. Highway Capacity Software (HCS version 3.2), McTrans Center, University of Florida. Gainesville, FL. (1998). 11. LINDO Systems Inc., Chicago, IL. (1998)

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12. Traffic Software Integrated System (TSIS Version 4.2), U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Washington D.C. (1998).

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