Transit signal priority accommodating conflicting requests under Connected Vehicles technology

In this research, a person-delay-based optimization method is proposed for an intelligent Transit Signal Priority (TSP) logic that resolves multiple conflicting TSP requests at an isolated intersection. This TSP with Connected Vehicles accommodating Conflicting Requests (TSPCV-CR) overcomes the challenge bore by the conventional "first come first serve" strategy and presents significant improvement on bus service performance. The feature of TSPCV-CR includes green time re-allocation, simultaneous multiple buses accommodation, and signal-transit coordination. These features help maximize the transit TSP service rate and minimize adverse effect on competing travel directions. The TSPCV-CR is also designed to be conditional. That is, TSP is granted only when the bus is behind schedule and the grant of TSP causes no extra total person delay. The optimization is formulated as a Binary Mixed Integer Linear Program (BMILP) which is solved by standard branch-and-bound routine. Minimizing per person delay is the objective of the optimization model. The logic developed in this research is evaluated using both analytical and microscopic traffic simulation approaches. Both analytical tests and simulation evaluations compared three scenarios: without TSP (NTSP), conventional TSP (CTSP), and TSP with Connected Vehicles that resolves Conflicting Requests (TSPCV-CR). The measures of effectiveness used include bus delay and total travel time of all travelers. The performance of TSPCV-CR is compared against conventional TSP (CTSP) under four congestion levels and three different conflicting scenarios. The results show that the TSPCV-CR greatly reduces bus delay at signalized intersection for all congestion levels and conflicting scenarios considered. Simulation based evaluation results show that the TSPCV-CR logic reduces average bus delay between 5% and 48% compared to the conventional TSP. The range of improvement corresponding to the four different v/c ratios tested, which are 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 and 1.0, respectively. No statistically significant negative effects are observed. Published by Elsevier Ltd.