Evaluation of Manual Traffic-Signal Control under Oversaturated Conditions Using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 11
Abstract
This paper quantitatively assesses the performance of manual traffic-signal control by comparing its performance with two optimized traffic-signal controls during oversaturated conditions. To simulate manual traffic-signal control, the VisSim-based hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS), which provides similar manual controls at a field traffic-signal, was implemented. Whereas the normal-day traffic signal-timing plan was obtained from the city of Charlottesville, optimized signal-timing plans were obtained from Synchro. The results obtained from the VisSim-based simulation indicate that benefits can be achieved by utilizing manual traffic-signal control and optimized signal-controls relative to normal-day traffic-signal control during oversaturated conditions. In particular, manual traffic-signal control reduced delays to a greater extent than the two optimized signal-timing plans. Although the reduction in delays achieved by the manual signal-controls was not statistically significant when compared with the performance of the two optimized signal-controls, the results of the third and fourth manual signal-control attempts by the same operators reflecting the performance of trained manual controls showed statistically significant improvements in reducing delays.
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Acknowledgments
The writers offer special thanks to Theresa Jones and Ross Powers, graduate research assistants at the Center for Transportation Studies at UVA, and to Lauren Perkins, Savannah Whalen, Qiwen Li, Sarah Hardingham, Claire Cascella, Brandon Hylton, Ryan Knox, Jiaqi Ma, Matthew McDonald, Jimmy Stewart, Kittisak Siripollawat, David Joynes, and Paul Boucher, the volunteers from the CE4400/6400 Traffic Operations course at UVA, for their time and contributions to this paper by participating in the manual-control experiments.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 11 • November 2013
Pages: 1068 - 1075
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 22, 2012
Accepted: Jun 21, 2013
Published online: Oct 15, 2013
Published in print: Nov 1, 2013
Discussion open until: Mar 15, 2014
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