Connected Bus Real-Time Priority Control Considering Arterial Signal Coordination

To deal with problems of destroying the existing arterial signal coordination and travel efficiency reduction of private vehicles due to bus priority control, a real-time bus priority control method with arterial signal coordination is established under connected vehicle environment. The method includes three steps. A speed advisory algorithm is proposed for the connected buses that are out of the intersection control area in order to guide the buses to arrive when the traffic light is green. Further, the bus signal priority requests together with the collaborative speed advisory and bus holding time is calculated when the bus reaches the intersection control area. Finally, satisfying the bus signal priority requests, the signal timing scheme is optimized to minimize private vehicle delay. Therefore, a speed advisory, bus holding time, and signal priority control method is constructed. The experimental results demonstrate the proposed method can cooperate with existing signal coordination, cater to bus priority demands, and ensure the benefits of private vehicles at the same time. Further numerical studies on the speed advisory algorithm and the bus signal request generation algorithm indicate a significant enhancement on preventing buses from stopping for red lights. Sensitivity analysis shows that a longer control distance of the intersection is more beneficial to reduce bus delay. © 2022, Editorial Department of Journal of Tongji University. All right reserved.