A Signal Coordination Model for Long Arterials Considering Link Traffic Flow Characteristics

In order to improve the travel efficiency on a long arterial with massive signals, this paper proposed a mixed integer linear programming model, MaxBandLAM, to simultaneously optimize the arterial partition scheme and signal coordination schemes with the consideration of link traffic flow characteristics. The weighted sum of the two-way green bandwidths on links across the arterial was taken as its objective. The link volume to capacity rations were taken as the weights. The number of sub-zones, the allocation of signals and links, signal cycle, offset and phase sequence, the coordination speed, as well as the two-way green bandwidths of sub-zones and of links are the decision variables. A numerical test was carried out on a virtual arterial with twenty signals. The results indicate the scheme generated by the MaxBandLAM model can provide a more reasonable partition scheme and coordination schemes compared to those generated by Synchro and the models with no traffic flow characteristics of links consideration. For the scenario of dominating the main road through flows, the average delay, average stop number, and average travel speed at intersections for all-turning flows and main road through flows in the MaxBandLAM scheme, all performed well.