Characterizing Emergency Vehicle Preemption Operation with High-Resolution Traffic Signal Event Data

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of a signal phase spectrum plot to analyze high-resolution traffic signal event data. Specifically, the controller performance related to emergency vehicle preemption operation is characterized in an effort to identify performance measures that will allow a traffic engineer to understand better the impact that various configurations have on intersection operations. Performance measures for individual intersections in coordinated systems include preemption duration, transition duration, and total interruption time. Performance measures for networks are based on an emergency vehicle reidentification process for deriving an emergency vehicle’s trajectory through a network, and the results can further be used to estimate travel time, travel speed, and origin–destination. These performance measures are illustrated by simulated signal system in Morgantown, West Virginia. Transition modes are varied in the simulation network to determine the relative performance measures. Case studies are presented for using high-resolution data to troubleshoot field preemption operation using signal systems in Morgantown and Huntington, West Virginia.