NTL Record

Title Evaluation of Emergency Vehicle Signal Preemption on the Route 7 Virginia Corridor
Record ID 22059
Personal Name
Creator
Bullock, Darcy; Morales, Juan M.; Sanderson, Bobby Jr.
Corporate Creator ITT Industries
Corporate
Contributor
United States. Federal Highway Administration. Office of Operations Research and Development
Publisher Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center; United States. Federal Highway Administration
Publication Date 19990701
Language English
Abstract This study analyzed the impact of emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption across three coordinated intersections on Route 7 (Leesburg Pike near Landsdowne) in Virginia. FHWA's Traffic Software Integrated System (TSIS) package, which includes the CORSIM simulation model and the vehicle animator, TRAFVU, was used for this study. Using FHWA's Traffic Research Laboratory (TReL) as a test bed, ITT Systems utilized the Controller Interface Device (CID) to interface a modified version of the CORSIM simulation with Type 170 controllers programmed with the identical signal plans to those existing at the Route 7 ยท intersections, with minor modifications to allow signal preemption. In this carefully controlled hardware-in-the-loop environment, CORSIM provided the microscopic simulation and tabulation of measures of effectiveness, but instead of CORSIM emulating controller features, the simulation package sent detector information to the physical controllers and read-back phase indicators. Since CORSIM tabulates performance measures of effectiveness (MOE's), quantitative results with and without preemption measurements were obtained. Results showed that for the geometric and operational conditions studies, the impact of emergency signal preemption on the signal coordination of the corridor was minor. Although several of the preemption cases had "statistically significant means" when compared to the base case (no preemption), the magnitude of the 1.6-percent increase in average travel time was considered minor. Relatively long spacing between intersections, platoon dispersion over long distances, and very long cycle lengths were judged to be some of the reasons for this increase. The information contained in this report will be of assistance to public agencies considering the installation of emergency signal preemption systems and to Intelligent Transportation Systems engineers.
Rosap ID dot:35851
Rosap URL https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/35851
TRT Terms Emergency vehicles; Impact studies; Measures of effectiveness; Microscopic traffic flow; Software packages; Traffic signal control systems; Traffic signal preemption; Traffic simulation; Travel time
General Subjects Area traffic control; Coordination; Emergency traffic control; Intersections; Signalized intersections; Traffic delay minimization; Traffic signal coordination; EMS; Modeling; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control
Geographical
Coverage
United States; Virginia
TRIS Online
Accession No
769428
Contract Number DTFH61-97-C-00055
Report Number FHWA-RD-99-070
Resource type Tech Report
URL https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/22000/22000/22059/PB99157950_2.pdf
Format PDF
Database NTL Digital Repository