Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Mathematical Modelling
Worksheet 14
Traffic flows and Pedestrian Crossings
1.
The traffic lights at a road junction are set to operate with a red phase of length
100 seconds and a green phase of length 60 seconds. The amber phase may be
ignored as it can be incorporated into either the red phase or the green phase.
Vehicles arrive at the traffic lights on average one every 4 seconds, and when
the lights turn to green the vehicles in the queue leave at a rate of one every
second.
A red and green cycle is hence of length 160 seconds during which, on
average, 40 vehicles arrive. During the green phase a maximum of 60 vehicles
may pass through the road junction. Hence we would expect all the vehicles
arriving during one cycle to pass through the junction during that cycle.
The system may be modelled by assuming that the vehicles arrive every 4
seconds precisely i.e. at times 2, 6, 10,.., 154, 158, after the start of the red
phase, and that the first vehicle in the queue leaves at the start of the green
phase, the next one second later, etc.
i)
It is possible to show that the last seven vehicles arriving during a red-green
cycle are not subject to any delay.
This is achieved by creating a table of the car arrival times and working out their
subsequent delays given the length of the red phase and the amount of time taken for
each car to go through the lights once the green phase begins. From the table it
becomes clear that car 33 goes through the lights at 132 seconds resulting in no delay
for the following 7 vehicles.
2
Car arrival times secs (s)
2
6
10
14
18
22
26
30
34
38
42
46
50
54
58
62
66
70
74
78
82
86
90
94
98
102
106
110
114
118
122
126
130
134
138
142
146
150
154
158
Delay (s)
98
95
92
89
86
83
80
77
74
71
68
65
62
59
56
53
50
47
44
41
38
35
32
29
26
23
20
17
14
11
8
5
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Red Phase
Green
Phase
ii)
From the table it is possible to find the average delay per vehicle.
2.
1
1650
Delay (s)
41.25 seconds.
40
40
We can consider the traffic light model of question (1) with general values of
the parameters:
rv = length of red phase (seconds).
g v = length of green phase (seconds).
It is possible to devise a formula to give the average delay per vehicle in terms
of rv , g v , a and d.
1
N
N = number of vehicles =
The
Delay
rv g v
a
where
1
n A L
2
A = first term = a - d
L = last term = rv - 1
r 1
n= v
ad
rv 1 a d r 1
v
2 a d
r 1 1 rv 1
v
a d
2
Sn
a rv 1
r 1
1 v
2 rv g v
a d
ii)
Y ~ P0 d
3.
The formula can be obtained by using a similar method to that used in question (2):
Average Delay per pedestrian =
1
N
N = number of pedestrians =
The
Delay
rp g p
b
1
n A L
2
In this case d will be zero because there is no time between the crossing of
pedestrians.
so
A = first term = b
L = last term = r p
rp
n=
Sn
rp
b r
p
2b
rp
rp
4.
brp
2 r p g p
rp
Pedestrians cross a one-way street at a point P where there are no traffic lights
or other traffic controls. It takes a pedestrian f seconds to cross the road, and
vehicles pass at random such that there is an average of a seconds between the
times when successive vehicles pass point P.
i.e. the number of vehicles that pass point P in one second is a Poisson random
variable with mean
i)
1
.
a
a
N Waiting time
X ~ P0
W ~ Ex
P X f
1 at
e dt 1 e a
a
1 at
e dt mean of exponential distribution over f.
a
a a f e
f
a
A P P 2 P 3 ..... P n
That is
P
1 P
f
f
a a f e a 1 e a
AP
f
1 P
1 1 e a
a a f e
f
a
ae
e
ae a a f e
f
a
f
a
a f e
f
a
f 2a
2f
a
AP
1 P