Traffic-Responsive Signal Control at Intersections Using Real-Time Data of Vehicles Connected via V2X Communication

Abstract

The positive effect of traffic-responsive signal control can be assured when real-time traffic data is reliable, but data reliability may be an issue that depends on the number of probe vehicles equipped with navigation devices or smartphones. However, there is a high chance of improving reliability with the recent deployment of connected vehicles (CVs) that use the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication data. Therefore, this paper proposes a traffic signal control strategy that utilizes V2X communication data obtained from CV operations, which is called the capacity waste reduction (CWR) strategy. In this strategy, vehicle queues on each road lane as an intersection approaches are initially estimated using V2X data. Then, the signal control algorithm determines the duration of the green signal for the currently applied phase based on the estimated vehicle queues. Furthermore, the strategy includes an algorithm for active priority signal control for the vehicles of bus rapid transit systems. The efficiency of the provided control strategy is tested with the VISSIM microsimulation program at different levels of the market penetration rate (MPR) of CVs. Based on the results of the experiment, the proposed strategy shows positive effects in both decreasing travel delay and increasing traffic flow even at the low levels of MPR of CVs. The results of the proposed strategy can be used as the base data for the development of smart intersection operations.