2.4 SIMULATION OF VEHICLES PLATOON 24:1 Concept . oe A platoon of vehicles discharging from a traffic signal spreads in time as it travels down a street due to the different speeds of the individual vehicles. A flow pattern changing with distance downstream may appear as in Figure 2.3. This phenomenon, taken into account in TRANSYT, is important when co- ordinating traffic signals networks, because it allows traffic to be dealt with in a more realistic way. In practice, due to the dispersion process, it is usually not possible to acconimodate the whole of a platoon in the green time on successive stop lines. For optimization, timing is usually set so that the front of the platoon is constrained, allowing it to reform to some extent. Imposition of the signal system has then an effect on the flow patterns. This would suggest that merely predicting a free dispersion of flow from a certain point is not a correct process. As Whife (1977) suggests, "most theories have assumed the flow distribution at a point as a function of the previous free flow pattern, instead of as a function of the previous flow pattem as reformed by signal constraints, Therefore, diffusion only takes place effectively at the rear of the platoon as the traffic discharges from each signal”. This process of platoon dispersion has its roots in work done since 1955. The main developments are discussed in the following sections. 2.4.2_Main Developments. a) General There has been a substantial amount of research into the area of platoon dispersion, carried out mainly in UK and USA, as éxplained in section 2.5.‘The most important has been that by Pacey (1956) and Robertson (1969). Much of the other research is related to the application and development of the Robertson formulae. Seddon (1972,a,b and c) summarizes the approaches to the platoon dispersion problem, explaining that they have been done from three points of view: the kinematic wave theory based on Lighthill and Whitham theories (Seddon, 1972a), the diffusion theory of platoons, based mainly on the work done by Pacey on the normal distribution of speeds and times (Seddon, 1973b) and, finally, the recurrence formula, or relationship of Robertson. Although designed in an empirical way, the latter implicitly carries a geometric distribution of times in itself (Seddon, 1973c). ‘The contributions of the main researchers are discussed below. b) Lighthill and Whitham Lighthill and Whitham (1955) presented their Kinematic Wave Theory in a parallel paper they wrote for the fluids mechanics area, They wanted to use their theory in order to understand the flow of traffic on long crowded roads, ‘The theory assumes that waves exist in.a traffic flow, and that there is a functional relationship between the flow, the concentration and the distance along the road. Froma continuity approach they deduced a formula from the speed of the shock wave that relates the flows and concentrations before and after the wave as follows. wa U= : (2.4.1) kk 26where U = shock wave speed qu = flow before g2 = flow after, k1 = concentration before k2 = concentration after This relationship means that the shock wave speed is the slope of the chord joining the two points (1 and 2) on the q-k curve or diagram of traffic, (see Figure 2.4), The Lighthill . and Whitham approach assumes a flow and concentration within a homogeneous medium, and has little interest from the practical point of view. Its relevance lies in that subsequent developments used the concept as the basis for further research. ©) Pacey Pacey’s Dispersion Theory (1956) was developed from that of Lighthill and Whitham’s as previously explained. ‘This theory assumes that changes in the shape of platoons released from traffic signals are produced only from differences in speed between vehicles. It is also assumed that there are no overtaking effects and that vehicle speed is otherwise unaffected by the number or distribution of vehicles on the road. This is likely in the case where there are light flows on wide roads but not in the case of a congested urban area, where overtaking is restrained. If the distribution of speeds of vehicles f(v)dv is assumed to be normal, it is possible to evaluate the inverse normal distribution corresponding to the journey times distribution g(T) dT between two points. If the flow that crosses the point 1 in time (t, trdt) is qu(t)dt, then the flow in the next point 2 in time (t#T) will be qu(t) dt g(T) dT. 27Rearranging the above expression leads to: qu g(T) dt dT, g(T) dt is the relative frequency of vehicles reaching point 2 in time (eT), ‘The total flow passing point 2 will be T q,(T) de -f 9,0 g(T-t) dt dT (2.4.2) t the integral is only for values of t for which qu(t) >0 ‘Thus the flow in a particular time interval is a function of the flows in the previous time intervals, at the first point. ‘The goodness of fit of the equation depends heavily on the accuracy of the probability function of journey times. A simplification of the above mentioned equation was made to take into account the effect of traffic not being continuous, but discrete. The equation is then represented by an histogram or "profile". The formula changes to: i 4,0) = x a@ gG-i) (2.4.3) isl Where j and i are counts in discrete intervals of time at the first and second points respectively. Calibrations made by many researchers (Seddon, 1972; Seddon and Dixon, 1973; Pinheiro-Moreira, 1985) have shown good results and predictions but complications arise from the application of the sophisticated expression for g(j-i). The Pacey complications were overcome by the appearance of a more robust and simple formula by Robertson, 28 | ia) Robertson ‘The Robertson (1969) model had a different approach 'to the problem. It came from a very simple and empirical way of tackling the platoon dispersion issue. He derived a recurrence relationship whereby G (+T) = Fan @) + (1-F) 2 G+T-1) (2.4.4) where (i+) = the derived flow at time i+T in intervals. q,@_=is the incident flow (in intervals) in time i of the initial platoon. T = [Bt +0.5] This expression means that is rounded to give the nearest integer. <= The average joumey time over the distance for which the platoon dispersion is being calculated. . 1 F =a smoothing factor equal to 5 cand B are parameters between 0 and 1 to be calibrated. Robertson (1969) found o. and to be'0.5 and 0.8 respectively. Because both profiles (known and predicted) are over a common basis of time, T represents the temporal displacement (in intervals or steps) of the head of the platoon in the second profile with respect to the first profile. It ‘mast be noticed that T must be an integer. ‘The F value is called the "dispersion factor” and has o value between Oand 1. Finally, it is implicit in the formulation that the flow is conserved between the sections, and that the relationship has a cyclic character. It may be analytically expressed as: 4, =4,0n) WV pandi=12,3..n (2.4.5) 29If the cycle is made equal to the traffic signal cycle, each interval or step has a duration of c/n, if ¢ is the eycle time. This cyclic treatment allows the use of the expression in the case of.traffic signal network simulation and co-ordination. ©) Seddon A very simple analytical exercise with the Robertson relationship may be done: Given: 4,(+T) =F q,@) + (-F) 4,(#T-1) let] = i+T, then 4,0) = F 4,6-T) + (1-F) 46-1) but 4,6-i) = F q,G-T-1) + (1-F) q,(-2) therefore 9,@) =F 6-1) +F (-F)ayG-T-1) + (1-7 456-2) but 6-2) = F q,@-T-2) + (1-F) 4,6-3) therefore ag() =F q,G-1) +F (-F) q\G-T-l) + F (1-8 a, 6-T-2) + FY 96-3) Continuing with the same type of algebraic. operations until q, (1) is reached (q; (0) being zero), the following expression may be derived: 9, () = FU-P)'9, (-T4F(-F)'9,6-T-)4F-F)'a,6-T-2)+..A FFP gg(1) The sum may be summarized as 0 = ¥ 4, @ Fa-F)™* (2.4.6) a 30This last expression may be compared with the one produced by Pacey (1956) 4,@) = Y 4,@ BG) i=l From this comparison, Seddon concluded that Robertson. has implicitly used a geometric distribution of time in his empirical relationship, namely: - 0 if k 0 and d>60 3.6 (d-60) ¥ t= 16+ - TE p50 and as60 tae v) The average time spent stationary on a bus stop, the b value, was only defined in a developed country context, neither taking into account the possibility of multiple stops, nor the partial stops produced by the interference of other vehicles-typical conditions in 2 developing country environment, 38b) Gibson Apart from the Robertson and Vincent contribution, Gibson (1984) is the only other researcher of relevance into bus platoon dispersion modelling, * He considered a more formal presentation of the problem than Robertson and Vincent, who on a very small amount of data made some of the parameters constants. ‘The most important findings made by Gibson in this area were: i) __ Togive a formal presentation of the Robertson and Vincent formulae. The Robertson = Vincent formulae given in paragraph a) of the present sub- section are the ones produce by Gibson. ii) Formulae for taking into account losses due to acceleration and braking on bus stops. were developed in a more general way. It was shown that the constant factor for braking produced by Robertson and Vincent was based on a very weak assumption of being independent of the velocity. The same may be said of the distance for the stopping process, estimated by Robertson and Vincent as 60 metre. iii) The two above-mentioned constants must be considered as parameters requiring calibration. ° Final comments The theoretical research into bus platoon dispersion modelling is limited. ‘There are few field experiments to support values of parameters. ‘The conditions in a developing country environment have not been approached in a systematic way and the influence of those conditions is something interesting to investigate. 39Profile + Om. Z 150m Time 2 Figure 2.3 Platoon dispersion in time Concentration, k Figure 2.4 Flow-Concentration Diagram 40