Passive transit signal priority for high transit demand: model formulation and strategy selection

Abstract

With the increasing of transit vehicles in urban networks, traditional active transit signal priority (TSP) control may fall short of efficiency and bring negative impacts to non-priority approaches due to overusing priority grants. To reduce the frequency of activating TSP under high bus volumes, this study presents a new model, named INTEBAND, to facilitate the platooning of both passenger-cars and buses along arterials. The model integrates the conventional signal progression model with bus progression model to balance the travel delay of car-users and bus-passengers. Taking Jingshi road in Jinan for example, this study employs VISSIM for model evaluations. Further sensitivity analysis reveals that INTEBAND could clearly outperform the two conventional models in reducing network person delay when the ratio of bus-passengers and car-users exceeds a threshold of 1.5. Moreover, a multi-classifier model based on simulation results is to conveniently answer when INTEBAND can yield more benefit than conventional progression models.