Abstract:

To describe the process of queue growth and dissipation on the link between coordinated signalized intersections, a vehicle queue model based on the shock wave theory was developed by analyzing the evolution of vehicle queuing. In order to validate the reliability of this model, a simulation scheme was designed by using VISSIM traffic simulation software to collect the speed and arrival time of each vehicle at upstream and downstream detectors. The queue dissipation lengths and residual queue lengths for 55 cycles were calculated from the proposed model. The outcomes reveal that the cycles in which the relative errors between the simulated and calculated values of queue dissipation length and residual queue length are less than 10% account for 72.73% and 85.45% respectively. This model can be applied to estimate the queue length on the link between coordinated signalized intersections, providing a theoretical basis for optimization or adjustment of traffic control scheme.

Key words: engineering of communications and transportation system, traffic queue, shock wave, queue dissipation length, residual queue