UNIT 5: ADVANCED TRAFFIC

MANAGEMENT
 Traffic signal coordination

• Traffic signals are one of the most effective and flexible active control of traffic and
is widely used in several cities worldwide
• The advantages of traffic signal include an orderly movement of traffic, an increased
capacity of the intersection and require only simple geometric design. However, the
disadvantages of the signalized intersection are large stopped delays, and
complexity in the design and implementation several cities worldwide
Phase: A phase is the green interval plus the change and clearance intervals that follow it.
During green interval, non-conflicting movements are assigned into each phase. It allows a
set of movements to flow and safely halt the flow before the phase of another set of
movements start.
Phase design
The signal design procedure involves six major steps.

(1) Phase design

(2) Determination of amber time and clearance time
(3) Determination of cycle length
(4) Apportioning of green time
(5) Pedestrian crossing requirements
(6) Performance evaluation of the designs obtained in the previous steps.
There is no precise methodology for the design of phases. This is often guided by the geometry of the
intersection, the flow pattern especially the turning movements, and the relative magnitudes of flow. Therefore, a
trial and error procedure is often adopted. However, phase design is very important because it affects the further
design steps. To illustrate various phase plan options consider a four legged intersection with through traffic and
right turns. Left turn is ignored. See
Figure 1.

The first issue is to decide how many phases are required. It is possible to have
two, three, four or even more number of phases.
Two phase signals
Two phase system is usually adopted if through traffic is significant compared to the turning
movements. For example in Figure 2, non-conflicting through traffic 3 and 4 are grouped in a
single phase and non-conflicting through traffic 1 and 2 are grouped in the second phase

However, in the first phase flow 7 and 8 offer some conflicts and are called permitted right turns.
Needless to say that such phasing is possible only if the turning movements are relatively low.
On the other hand, if the turning movements are significant, then a four phase system is usually adopted
Four phase signals
There are at least three possible phasing options. For example, figure 3 shows the most simple
and trivial phase plan.
where, flow from each approach is put into a single phase avoiding all conflicts. This type of
phase plan is ideally suited in urban areas where the turning movements are comparable with
through movements and when through traffic and turning traffic need to share same lane.
Figure 4 shows a second possible phase plan option where opposing through traffic are
put into same phase.
The non-conflicting right turn flows 7 and 8 are grouped into a third phase. Similarly flows 5 and
6 are grouped into fourth phase. This type of phasing is very efficient when the intersection
geometry permits to have at least one lane for each movement, and the through traffic volume is
significantly high. Figure 5 shows yet another phase plan. However, this is rarely used in practice There are five
phase signals, six phase signals etc. They are normally provided if the intersection
control is adaptive, that is, the signal phases and timing adapt to the real time traffic conditions.

There are five phase signals, six phase signals etc. They are normally provided if the intersection
control is adaptive, that is, the signal phases and timing adapt to the real time traffic conditions.
Cycle time
Cycle time is the time taken by a signal to complete one full cycle of iterations. i.e. one complete rotation through all
signal indications. It is denoted by $ C$. The way in which the vehicles depart from an intersection when the green signal
is initiated will be discussed now. Figure 1 illustrates a group of N vehicles at a signalized intersection, waiting for the
green signal.
As the signal is initiated, the time interval between two vehicles, referred as headway, crossing the curb line is noted. The
first headway is the time interval between the initiation of the green signal and the instant vehicle crossing the curb line.
The second headway is the time interval between the first and the second vehicle crossing the curb line. Successive
headways are then plotted as in figure 2.
 Intelligent Transportation System

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is the application of computer, electronics, and

communication technologies and management strategies in an integrated manner to provide
traveler information to increase the safety and efficiency of the surface transportation systems.
These systems involve vehicles, drivers, passengers, road operators, and managers all interacting
with each other and the environment, and linking with the complex infrastructure systems to
improve the safety and capacity of road systems.
ITS user services

1. Travel and traffic management

2. Public transportation operations
3. Electronic payment
4. Commercial vehicle operations
5. Advance vehicle control and safety systems
6. Emergency management
7. Information management
8. Maintenance and construction management
Travel Demand Management
This user service develop and implement strategies to reduce
the number of single occupancy
vehicles while encouraging the use of high occupancy vehicles
and the use of more efficient
travel mode. The strategies adopted are:
1. Congestion pricing
2. Parking management and control
3. Mode change support
4. Telecommuting and alternate work schedule.
Advanced vehicle control and safety systems
This user service aims to improve the safety of the transportation system by supplementing
drivers’ abilities to maintain vigilance and control of the vehicle by enhancing the crash
avoidance capabilities of vehicles. Following user services are included in this group:
Longitudinal Collision Avoidance
This user service provides assistance to vehicle operators in avoiding longitudinal collisions
to
the front and/or rear of the vehicle. This is achieved by implementing rear-end collision
warning
and control, Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), head-on collision warning and control, and
backing
collision warning to the drivers.
Lateral Collision Avoidance
This helps drivers in avoiding accidents that result when a vehicle leaves its own lane of
travel,
by warning drivers and by assuming temporary control of the vehicle. This service provides
to
the drivers the lane change/blind spot situation display, collision warning control and lane
departure warning and control.
Intersection Collision Avoidance
This user service is specifically aimed at providing vehicle operators with assistance in avoiding
collisions at intersections. The system tracks the position of vehicles within the intersection area
through the use of vehicle-to-vehicle communications or vehicle to infrastructure
communications.
Vision Enhancement for Crash Avoidance
This service helps in reducing the number of vehicle crashes that occur during periods of poor
visibility by in vehicle sensors capable of capturing an image of driving environment and
providing a graphical display of the image to the drivers.
Safety Readiness
This helps to provide drivers with warnings regarding their own driving performance, the
condition of the vehicle, and the condition of the roadway as sensed from the vehicle.
Pre-Crash Restraint Deployment
This service helps in reducing the number and severity of injuries caused by vehicle collisions by
anticipating an imminent collision and by activating passenger safety systems prior to the actual
impact.
Automated Vehicle Operations (AVO)
This service provides a fully automated vehicle-highway system in which instrumented vehicles
operate on instrumented roadways without operator intervention
 ITS Architecture

The ITS Architecture provides a common framework for planning, defining, and integrating
intelligent transportation systems. It specifies how the different ITS components would interact
with each other to help solving transportation problems.
National ITS architecture
This is developed by US Department of Transportation to provide guidance and co-ordinate all
regions in deploying ITS. It documents all information available and keep updating continuously.
The national architecture contains the following components:
User services and their requirements
A number of functions are needed to accomplish the user services. These functional statements
are called user services requirements. For all the user services the requirements have been
specified. If any new function is added, new requirements are to be defined. Table. 1 shows an
illustration of user service requirements for traffic control user service
 ITS Planning
Transportation planning and ITS
Transportation planning helps in shaping a well balanced transportation system that can meet
future demands. Transportation planning is an iterative process which include problem
identification, solution generation, analysis, evaluation and implementation. This can be
integrated with ITS using computers, communication systems and software

The steps in traditional transportation planning are as follows:

1. Establish goals and objectives
2. Inventory existing conditions
3. Analyze existing conditions
4. Long range/ short range element
5. Forecast land use, population/employment
6. Forecast future travel/trips
7. Develop and evaluate alternative transportation plans
8. Prepare recommended plans and programs
Objective of Traffic Signal Coordination
• The primary goal of traffic signal coordination is to create a more efficient and organized flow of
• traffic at a series of interconnected intersections
Benefits of Traffic Signal Coordination
• Reduced traffic congestion and delays.
•  Improved travel time for motorists.
•  Enhanced safety by reducing the likelihood of accidents at intersections.
•  Fuel savings and reduced vehicle emissions due to smoother traffic flow
Types of Traffic Signal Coordination
 Fixed-Time Coordination: Signals operate on predetermined schedules.
 Time-of-Day Coordination: Signal timings change based on the time of day.
 Traffic-Actuated Coordination: Signals adjust in real-time based on vehicle detection.
 Adaptive Coordination: Signals adapt to real-time traffic conditions.
 Progression Coordination: Signals are synchronized to create a "green wave" for vehicles along an arterial road.
 Area Traffic Control Command and Control
Centre
• ATC systems are intelligent real-time dynamic traffic control systems
which are designed to effectively respond to rapid variations in
dynamic traffic conditions.
• It is an advanced process to control the traffic.
• It is a traffic responsive system that use data from vehicle detectors
and optimize traffic signal time in real time.
• The timing plan of traffic controllers changed automatically. The
technique employs digital computers for achieving the desired
objective.
Basic Principle of ATC
• Digital computer could be used to control many traffic signals from
one location
• The computer sends out signals along one or more arterial.
• There is no feedback of information from detectors in the field, and
the traffic signal plans are not responsive to actual traffic conditions.
• Earlier, the plans for such a system are developed based on the
engineers usage of data from field studies to generate plans either by
hand, or by computer, using packages available at the time.
 Advantages of the off-line system of
control plans
• 1. Ability to update signals from a Central Location: The ability to retime signals from a central
location without having to send people along an entire arterial to retime the signals individually at
each intersection saves lot of time.
• 2. Ability to have multiple plans and special plans: In many localities a three-dial controller is
quite sufficient: if traffic is generally regular, three basic plans (A.M. peak, P.M. peak, off-peak) can
meet the needs. The computer opens the possibility to have an N-dial controller, with special plans
stored for certain days. With appropriate plans stored foreach such event, the plans can be called
up by time of day, or by operator intervention.
• 3.Information on equipment failures: The early systems simply took control of electromechanical
controllers, driving the cam-shaft from the central computer and receiving a confirmation signal.
Failure to receive this signal meant trouble. The information provided by the control computer
allowed such failures to be detected and repair crews dispatched.
• 4. Performance data on contractor or service personnel: With a failure detected and notification
made, the system can log the arrival of the crew and/or the time at which the intersection is
returned to active service.
Collection of traffic data
• The ability of a computer to receive great amount of data and
process it is made use of by detectors in the field for sending
information back to the central location.
• The computer is being used as the tool for the collection of
permanent or long-term count data.
 3 Ways-Traffic data used for plan selection

• 1.Use library - Monitor deviations from expected pattern: This concept uses a time-of-day approach,
looking up in a library both the expected traffic pattern and the preselected plan matched to the pattern.
The actual traffic pattern can be compared to the expected, and if a deviation occurs, the computer can
then look through its library for a closer match and use the appropriate plan.
• 2. Use library - Match plan to pattern: This is a variation on the first concept, with the observed pattern
being matched to the most appropriate pre-stored pattern and the corresponding plan being used.
• 3. Develop plan on-line: This concept depends on the ability to do the necessary computations within a
deadline either as a background task or on a companion computer dedicated to such a computations.
This approach presumes an advantage to tailoring the control plan to specific traffic data.
• It is necessary to note that the time between plan updates is constrained by the speed with which the
on-line plan computations can be done. The desire to have more frequent updates implicitly assumes
that the real traffic situation can be known precisely enough to differentiate between consecutive
update periods.
Advantages of Area Traffic Control
• Minimizing journey time for vehicles- Area traffic control system minimize
the overall journey time by reducing the no of stop delays, increasing the
average travel speed etc.
Reducing accidents- Are traffic control system reduces the no of accident
by reducing the congestion as congestion is less the traffic flow will be
smooth so accident also will be less.
Increasing average saving in fuel- As we discussed above that it will
minimize the journey time, accident, congestion, stop delays so we can
easily say that average saving in fuel will increase and traffic flow also will
be safe and smooth.
 Disadvantages
• Very costly- Area traffic control is a very advanced traffic control
strategy. It involves very advanced technology and highly skilled persons
to operate the system to control the traffic which makes it very costly.
• Very complex- Area traffic control system is a very big system which
includes many units in it like Vehicle Detectors, Intersection Controller,
Communication Network, Application Software, Central (Regional)
Control System. These unit is use to perform different-different task for
the system. These unit and task make it very complex.
Contd…
• Suitable only for lane following traffic- In area traffic control system
we use vehicle detector to collect the data to find the actual flow and
to get signal timing according to the present condition of traffic.
These vehicle detectors detect the vehicle on the basis of lane.
• For example we are collecting data for two lane road then the
detectors will able to detect the vehicle which will come from their
respective lane and the vehicle which is using space other than these
two lanes cannot be detected.
Major Blocks of ATC
Major Building blocks of the Area Traffic Control Systems are:
• Vehicle Detectors,
• Intersection Controller,
• Communication Network,
• Application Software and Central (Regional) Control System
Building Blocks
Vehicle Detectors is used to detect the presence of vehicles, to collect
data to find average speed, vehicle flow, vehicle density, queue length
measurement. VD acts as a nodal point between vehicle and intersection
controller. Detector could be of various types example-ultrasonic,
microwave radar, infrared laser radar, non-imaging passive infrared,
video imaging, acoustic array, magnetic loop, Inductive loop vehicle
detector is commonly used.
 Intersection Controller
It is the micro-macro computer. It placed at intersection for temporary
storage of data. It collects the data from vehicle detector and sends it
to the central control. Central control processed the data and sends it
back to the intersection controller which then implements the signal
timings as instructed at the intersection. Intersection controller for
each set of traffic signals receives the signal states from the control
system.
Communication Network
It is the micro-macro computer. It placed at intersection for temporary
storage of data. It collects the data from vehicle detector and sends it
to the central control. Central control processed the data and sends it
back to the intersection controller which then implements the signal
timings as instructed at the intersection. Intersection controller for
each set of traffic signals receives the signal states from the control
system.
• Application Software
• Application software is the software used behind the whole ATC system
which performs theentire task. It is a large and complex program involving
multiple systems, various procedures for implementation. Functions of
Application software are: It defines the architecture flows,activities and
functions and user services that planners want to deliver.
• Central Control System
• It is the main unit of ATC. In this unit collected traffic data is processed to
optimize varioustraffic parameters like-signal timing, phase change, delay
Important and major task of ATC system is performed by this unit. It
supervises all the units of ATC.
Parking Management
• Parking management may seek to achieve the following in relation to
parking:
• Inform drivers about parking opportunities.
• Assist in the distribution and management of limited numbers of parking
spaces, including their pricing.
• Assist in the enforcement of parking.