Signal Timing Optimization with Consideration of Environmental and Safety Impacts

UTC Project Information

Transportation  agencies  are  increasingly  realizing  the  importance  of  performance  measurement  and management.  However,  the  main  performance  measures  used  in  assessment  and  optimization  of signal  timing  have  been  mobility  measures  (such  as  travel  time  and/or  delays),  with  limited consideration  of  environmental  and  safety  impacts.   Consideration  of  these  measures  is  important, particularly  with  the  increased  emphasis  on  performance  measurement  and  management  of transportation  systems.   Performance  measurement  requires  the  consideration  of  a  wide  array  of measures;  which should be mapped to  agency goals and objectives,  and to  identified issues  associated with the region or specific system under consideration.

Some  efforts  have  been  conducted  to  incorporate  fuel  consumption  and  emissions,  and  to  a  much lesser degree safety, in signal timing optimization. Despite the availability of some studies on these subjects,  no  guidelines  or  tools  are  available  to  assist  traffic  engineers  in  their  evaluation  and optimization of signal control based on  related  measures.  The goal of this research is to  recommend methods  and  models  for  assessing  and  reduce  environmental  and/or  safety  impacts  associated  with signal timing, in combination with mobility measures.

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