SIGNALS

Warrants for signalisation

IRC 93-1985 Total traffic volume warrant Minimum delay warrant Pedestrian volume warrant Accident related warrant Combination of warrants

Signals - Basics
Separate out conflicts over time Benefits orderly movement, reduce conflicts, increase capacity Disadvantages unnecessary delay during offpeak, take unsafe roads to avoid signals, power failure leads to chaos

Terms and Definitions

Cycle
One complete sequence of signal indications

Cycle length, C
Total time for one cycle in sec

Interval
Part of cycle length during which all indications remain constant Eg. Green interval, Red interval, Yellow interval

Terms and Definitions

Phase
Part of cycle allocated to one or more streams of traffic having right of way simultaneously Simplest is 2 phase

Within a phase 1 interval or more?

Terms and Definitions

Green interval, Gi Red interval Ri Yellow or change interval, y All red or clearance interval, r Change and clearance interval Yi

Terms and Definitions

Lost time L
Time during which intersection is not effectively utilised During change and clearance (clearance lost time) l1 At the beginning of each phase (start up lost time) l2

Terms and Definitions

Effective green time gi
gi = Gi + Yi - Li

Effective red time ri = C gi Effective green ratio = gi/C Timing diagram Diagram showing different intervals involved within a cycle.

Turning movements
Right turn difficult part to model Can be exclusive right turn lane or shared Can be permitted or protected Permitted delay due to waiting for gaps need exclusive turn lane Uses through car equivalents (tcu) to take into account these delays

TCU
How many through vehicles would consume the same amount of effective green time traversing the stop line as one right turning vehicle. Depends on many factors including flow in the opposite direction, right turn flow, number of lanes in the opposite direction

Types of turning movements

Permitted
Turning against opposing traffic Turning volumes and opposing volumes are less

Protected
Leads to multiphase signalisation Depends on turning volume, opposite through volume, intersection geometry etc.

Permitted/protected or protected/permitted
Compound phasing Part of cycle having protected/permitted and remaining time the other

Ban right turn

Protected Turn
Leading phase
protected turn phase before through

Lagging phase
protected turn phase after through

Lead-Lag phasing turn volumes not equal or space constraint

Overlapping

Lead- Lag
One direction through and turn together and then next direction through and turn Involve overlapping
unequal turn volumes space constraint (also known as split phasing)

Preferred leading green turns start together, may end at different timings

Discharge headway

e1

Saturation Headway, h
Headway after 4th or 5th vehicle IRC 2 sec HCM 1.9 sec Under Indian condition?

Saturation flow rate, S

If every vehicle consumes h sec of green time and if signal was always green, then s vehicles can enter the intersection in an hour S= 3600/h
S saturation flow rate in vphgpl h saturation headway in sec

Capacity, c
Saturation flow assumes continuous green With signal changes, losses happen headway will be more than h initially. Capacity takes into account these.

Capacity
Capcity of lane i, ci = si(gi/C)
ci - Capacity of lane i, vphpl si C gi If signal is always green, saturation flow and capacity are equal

Ratios
Flow ratio v/s normalising flow to measure the intensity on various roads Degree of saturation, X = v/c = vC/sg

MoEs
Quantifying the system performance Commonly used are
Delays Queues Stops Delay is the most important one.

Delays
Amount of time consumed in traversing the intersection Different forms
Stopped time delay Travel time delay (Total delay) Approach delay Control delay

Delays
Delays can be represented
on an aggregate basis- veh-sec average individual basis sec/veh

Control delay is the MoE as per HCM 2000

LOS Avg. Description control delay (sec/veh) A B C D E F <10 10-20 20-35 35-55 55-80 >80 Free flow Slight delays Acceptable delays Approaching unstable flow Unstable flow Forced flow

Other MoEs
Length of queue and number of stops

Delay
Delay components
Uniform Delay assume uniform arrivals Random Delay flow randomly distributed Overflow Delay volume>capacity

Websters delay model

Starting model for delay at intersections 1958 Simple analytical approach Computes the uniform delay no overflow Assumes arrivals as uniform Delay is area between arrival and departure curves

Websters delay equation

Average uniform delay
g g 1 1 C C C C = 2 1 v 2 v g 1 max1, s cC
2 2

 Assumed uniform arrivals More appropriate will be Poisson arrivals Extra delay to take this into account -Random Delay Overflow delay due to individual cycle failure need to be taken into account (v/c for entire analysis period still below 1)

Websters modified Relation

 Total delay = UD+RD If v/c > 1 Overflow delay OD Total Delay = UD + RD + OD

Queuing diagram

Signal Design
Pre-timed/ Fixed signal timing design Steps
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Phase plan Y for each phase C Splitting of green Pedestrians

1. Phase plan
More phases more lost time Phase plan consistent with geometry, lanes, volumes, speeds and pedestrian

 Simplest 2 phase all turns permitted Compound Protected

Lead Lag Lead-lag

Guidelines for Protection

If V rt > 200 veh/hr

V rt * (Vopp/Nopp)>50000
Left turn permitted against pedestrians

Phase and Ring Diagram

To illustrate signal phase plans Notations
Protected vs Permitted Exclusive vs Shared

Phase and Ring Diagram

Phase diagram shows all movements made in a green phase within a single block of diagram. A ring diagram shows which movement is controlled by which ring of the controller. Usually 2 ring controller

Phase and Ring Diagrams

2 phase 3 phase 4 phase Compound (EW having protected-permitted) Overlapping

2. Change and Clearance Intervals

Yellow warning Based on time required to traverse 1 SSD at approach speed Faster vehicle should be able to stop before stop line. 3-6 sec

s85 y=t+ 2a + 2 g * G

 All red to allow vehicles to clear the area

W +L r= S15

Slower vehicles also should be able to clear

Dilemma Zone
Make sure y+r does not lead to any dilemma zone. An area close to the intersection in which a vehicle can neither stop safely nor clear safely.

Minimum Y

t min

V0 W +L =t+ + 2(a + gG ) V0

3 & 4. C and green splitting

Optimum cycle length
Minimise delay or lost time

Most common Websters equation Differentiate Webster's total delay equation with C and equate to zero for minimum delay

Websters cycle time equation

1.5 L + 5 C0 = v 1 s c

C0 - Optimum cycle length in sec L total lost time per cycle, sec v - sum of (v/s) ratios of all critical lanes s c (lanes with max. (v/s) ratio for each phase).

 Variation of avg. delay per vehicle with C C small C big Optimum (3/4)C0 to 1.5C0

Green splitting
g= C-L
v s Ac gA = g v s c

v s Ac

- Critical leg (v/s) ratio for phase A

IRC - 93
Uses above approach Max cycle time 120 sec C should be a multiple of 5 4 phases per cycle maximum 3 different plans for a day (morning peak, off-peak, evening peak) max 8

HCM
Critical lane and time budget concept Provide time for critical lanes in each phase (ones with max. flow) If C cycle time, N phases and, tL is lost time per phase

 Total lost time =

3600 Nt L C

3600 g = 3600 Nt L C
Max. sum of critical lane volumes that can be accommodated within an hour, Vc
g Vc = h

 Min. Cycle length from above

Cmin = 3600 Nt L = 3600 Vc h Nt L Vc 1 3600 / h

Taking into account peak hour factor and Nt v/c ratio C =

L des

V c 1 v 3600 PHF c h

Signal Analysis - HCM

Capacity Module

Capacity
Capacity of all approaches not reached at the same time Compute capacity and v/c for each lane group Critical v/c for the intersection as sum of critical v/c for different lane groups If the above critical v/c >1 - oversaturation Need to change cycle length, phase plan or signal timing

LoS Module

Level of Service
LoS based on average control delay per vehicle for all approaches v/c is a measure of capacity sufficiency Delay is a measure of quality of service Delay is estimated for each lane group and then for each approach and finally for intersection

LoS Module

LOS

LoS Module

Uniform delay

Aggregate delay

LoS criteria