Control Strategies for Oversaturated Traffic

Abstract

Recently, a dynamic traffic control system designated as dynamic intersection signal control optimization (DISCO) has been developed. DISCO considers the entire fundamental diagram of traffic flow, which is essential for controlling congested and transient traffic. As a dynamic model, DISCO works with time-variant traffic patterns and derives dynamic timing plans. In this study, we applied DISCO to a congested network in Hong Kong and studied the various control strategies enabled by DISCO. The results showed that DISCO outperformed the existing plans by 30–40% in overall delay reductions. DISCO performed best under the most flexible control scheme of variable-green no-cycle strategy, given a good initial solution for the algorithm. Nevertheless, even good fixed-time plans can produce remarkable results.