Bus Priority Control for Dynamic Exclusive Bus Lane

One problem with the existing dynamic exclusive bus lane strategies is that bus signal priority strategies with multi-phase priority request at intersections are not adequately considered. The principle of bus signal priority level was designed based on the isolated multi-phase structure principle consideration of the bus signal priority, and a new priority approach for the dynamic exclusive bus lane was proposed. Two types of priority strategies, green extension and red truncation, were proposed for current phase and next phase buses, respectively. The control parameters including minimum green time, green extension time, maximum green time and bus arrival time are calculated. The case studies for this paper were carried out using four consecutive intersections of Huaide Middle Road in Changzhou City. The signal control scheme was designed using the conventional, exclusive bus lane method, the dynamic exclusive bus lane without signal priority method, and the proposed approach, respectively. The authors used the VISSIM simulation platform to evaluate the efficiency of each approach. Results showed that the method of approach can significantly decrease delays caused by social and conventional buses and make up for the negative impact social buses have on the bus rapid transit (BRT) operation, which allows the method to complement the dynamic, exclusive bus lane design.