NTL Record

Title Signal timing under saturated conditions.
Record ID 38821
Personal Name
Creator
Denney, Richard W.; Head, Larry; Spencer, Kevin
Corporate Creator Booz Allen Hamilton
Corporate
Contributor
United States. Federal Highway Administration
Publisher United States. Federal Highway Administration
Publication Date 20081100
Language English
Abstract This report provides guidance to practitioners on effective strategies to mitigate the effects of congestion at signalized intersections. The scope is limited to single intersections and does not address network-level strategies. The strategies are defined in terms of their underlying objective. Under congested conditions, traditional objectives and performance measures shift from progression and minimizing delay to maximizing throughput and managing queues. Experts were interviewed to identify the strategies and tactics they used to address congested intersections, a discussion of their methods is presented. Select strategies were studied further, particularly the belief that longer cycles are more efficient, and the effects of buses on signal timing in grid networks. The research revealed that long cycle lengths may not be more efficient at intersections where long queues starve turn lanes. In grid networks, the cycle length that is just long enough to reliably serve busses from a near-side stop was found through simulation to prevent the development of residual queues.
Rosap ID dot:20668
Rosap URL https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/20668
TRT Terms Signalized intersections; Traffic signal timing; Traffic congestion; Saturation flow
General Subjects Signalized intersections, Traffic signal timing, Congestion, Cycle lengths, Throughput, Queue management
Geographical
Coverage
United States
Contract Number DTFH61-06-D-00006
Report Number FHWA-HOP-09-008
Resource type Tech Report
URL https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/38000/38800/38821/fhwahop09008.pdf
Format PDF
Database NTL Digital Repository