A real-time signal control strategy at an isolated pedestrian crossing based on radar data

Abstract

Fixed-time traffic signal control strategy in an isolated pedestrian crossing tends to reduce traffic capacity and expose vulnerable road users to more danger. To mitigate the negative impact of previous control strategy, this study proposed an optimal real-time signal timing strategy to protect pedestrian crossing and at the same time minimize the system-wide traffic delay. With the application of a wide-area radar data, the features of vehicles, pedestrians, and the passing time of non-motor vehicles and pedestrian were captured considering conflicts and traffic delay. The support vector machine for regression was utilized to hypothesize traffic delay by training. The discrete values of hypothetical passing time will be tested. The minimum value of delay can be recognized and the corresponding hypothetical passing time will be recommended as the green time for crossing. The performance of the proposed ORSTS outperformed the fixed-time traffic signal control strategy in reducing traffic delay by 22.3%.