Transportation Engineering II

Traffic Systems Design and Operation

Design of a Pretimed Traffic Signal Plan

Lina Kattan
 Sources:

• Hunt D. Slides for 473

• Chapters 21-22 of (not-required) textbook:

Roess RP, Prassas ES and McShane WR, 2011,
Traffic Engineering, 4th Edition. Pearson
Education Inc, Toronto ON, Canada.
 Objectives
By the end of this lecture you should be able to:

• Design a pretimed signal plan

1. Determine optimum cycle and phasing plan
2. Define green, amber, red and pedestrian time
 Intersection Control Types
Uncontrolled: Low volumes
Priority controls: Major road gets priority; minor roads
controlled by YIELD or STOP sign
Signalized: Need to satisfy some warrants
e.g. If major road volume 650-800 VPH both directions, and
minor road 200-250 VPH for one direction only

Grade separated: If total of all approaches >10,000 PCPH

 Objectives of Traffic Signals
– Separate individual movements in time rather than in
space
– Improve overall safety
– Decrease average travel time and increase capacity
through an intersection
– Equalize the quality of service for all or most traffic
streams
 Signal Warrants

– Eight-hour vehicular volume

– Four-hour vehicular volume
– Peak hour
– Pedestrian volume
– School crossing
– Coordinated signal system
– Collision history
– Roadway network
 Types of Traffic Signals
1. Fixed or Pretimed:
– Maintains a preset constant cycle, phase
lengths and sequence.
2. Synchronized
– Maintains a green wave
3. Fully actuated:
– Responds to the presence of vehicles and
pedestrians
– To be used in conjunction with vehicle
detectors
4. Semi-actuated
– Detectors placed only on the minor
approach
– Major approach is interrupted only if
vehicle present at the minor approach
5. Responsive/Adaptive
– Green time are allocated based on the
incoming traffic on each approach
– Needs lots of vehicle detectors
 Design Period for pretimed signals
• Predictable demand
• Multiple period (AM timing, PM timing, day off peak and night off-peak)
Basic Layout
Basic Terms
Lane configuration
 Basic Signal Phasing Plans
• Traffic movements are grouped and allowed to move in phases
 Basic Signal Phasing Plans (cont.)
General guidelines for protected left phase

• Such phasing should be considered whenever there is an opposed left turn that satisfies one of
the two following criteria:

1. vLT  200 veh/hr

2. vLT * (v0/N0)  50,000 “Cross-Product” Rule

• vLT : left-turn flow rate

• vo: opposing through movement flow rate

• No: number of opposing through movement

• Left-turn protection is rarely provided when left-turn flows are less than two vehicles
per cycle.

• Where a protected phase is needed for one left-turning movement, it is often

convenient to provide one for the opposing left turn, even if it does not meet any of
the normal guidelines
 Basic Conventions used in diagrams

Through movement , no turning movement

Through movement and protected left and

right turns from shared lanes
Through movement and permitted left and
right turns from shared lanes
Through movement and protected left
from exclusive lane and protected right
turn from shared lanes
Through movement and permitted left
from exclusive lane and permitted right
turn from shared lanes
 Elements of Traffic Signal
• Parameters that you need to determine in
designing a traffic signal:
• Cycle length
• Phase sequence
• Green time per phase
• Intergreen interval (amber + all red) per phase
• Pedestrian time per phase
 Basic Timing Elements
–Green interval: the period of the phase during which
the green signal is illuminated.
–Intergreen interval: the interval between the end of
green for one phase and the beginning of green for
another phase
–Amber interval: the portion of the phase during which the
amber (or yellow) light is illuminated.
–All-red interval: the period during which the red light is
illuminated for all approaches
 Intergreen, amber and red Int.
Intergreen Interval = Amber + All red

• Allows vehicle travelling at design speed to go through intersection

without collision when at or beyond the point of minimum stopping
distance
Amber
• Indicates to drivers with green that red is about to start
• Vehicles facing amber light must come to a stop before entering
intersection, unless such a stop cannot be made in safety.
Red
• Vehicles facing red light must come to a stop before entering
intersection.
 Concept of Dilemna Zone
if vehicle is here when light if vehicle here when light changes
changes to amber, there is to amber, there is time to continue
distance to stop before and get through before other
intersection vehicles enter intersection

deleimma zone

if vehicle is here when

light changes to • If intergreen less than Imin,
amber, veh can then there is a ‘delemma
neither stop nor zone’
continue safely
 Intergreen Interval

Intergreen time, I, must provide driver

enough time to travel as much as
S+W+L continuing at V0
 Braking Vehicle
• Vehicle travelling at approach speed V0 (Km/hr)
• Continues for perception-reaction time tpr (sec) over a distance
Spr (m)
• Decelerates from V0 to 0 over a distance Sb (Meters)
• So Vehicle travelling at design speed V0 (km/h) needs minimum
stopping distance S (meters):
 Intergreen Interval
Intergreen time, I, must provide driver enough time to
travel as much as S+W+L continuing at V0
Intergreen Interval
 Intergreen Interval
• Ensure no ‘dilemma zone’ by providing Intergreen of at least Imin

• Avoid Intergreen Interval much longer than Imin:

• so as not to condition drivers to long periods when it is still
possible to cross the intersection after Amber Interval starts
Amber time and recommended
Intergreen

• All red is standardized to 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0 sec

• This is another method to determine Irec
• Can check the 2 methods for obtaining I and take the highest
Imin
 Effective Green Time
effective green Saturation Flow
time estimated using
Number of vehicles that would pass G G Y
through the intersection during l1
(an l2 )
signal times and assumed lost times
entire hour of green
Observe h; Calculate
Effective Green G’S;
S = 1/h
(S is usually between 1600 and 1900 veh/hr)
Saturation
Flow
Flow Rate (vphgpl)

Lost Time Lost Time

l1 l2

Time (sec)
G Y
Intergreen:
Green Amber + All red
 Effective Green and lost time Concepts
Lost time: Time during which intersection is not effectively utilized for –
time when flow is assumed to be 0
any movement

gi

Green Intergreen:
Amber + All red

l1start-up lost time: occurs each time a queue starts to move (around 1.5 – 2.5 sec)
l2 clearance lost time: the clearance lost time occurs each time the flow of vehicles stops (around 1- 2 sec)`
Condition at start-up
 Effective Green
Effective Time
Green
i effective green
Geffective green time
timeestimated using:
estimated using
Gi + (l1+ l2) = Gact + Intergreen. Thus: GG G Y (l l2 )
i = (Gact + I) – (l1+ l2)
1
signal times and assumed lost times
Gi
Effective Green G’

Saturation
Flow
Flow Rate (vphgpl)

Lost Time Lost Time

l1 l2

Time (sec)
G
Green Y
Intergreen
 Critical Approach or Lane Concept
• The approach or lane for a given
phase that requires the most green
time : This lane/approach will
control the necessary green time
for that approach

• Each signal phase has one and

only one critical lane
movement.

• All other lane movements in the

phase require less time than the
critical lane. Flow should be in straight-through
passenger-car units per hour (e.g. 1
HV = 1.75 PCU)
 Straight-through passenger-
car units (PCU) per hour

• Through movement multiply by 1.0

• Left movement multiply by 1.6
• Right movement multiply by 1.3
• Passenger Cars (PC) multiply with 1.0
• CV or HV – multiply with 1.75
– CV: Commercial vehicle; HV: Heavy vehicle
 Equivalent volumes per lane

• In case of shared lane, these equivalents are added to

through vehicles to find the total equivalent volume or
equivalent volumes per lane in each approach:
VEQ = VLTE + VTH + VRTE
VEQL = VEQ / N
– N : number of lanes
– VEQ: total volume in a lane group or approach
– VEQL: total volume per lane in a lane group or approach
 Signal Optimization
• Long Cycle Length
– High capacity (reduced lost time in 1 hour )
– High delay on movements (long queues) that
are not served

• Short Cycle Length

– Reduced delay for any given movement
– Reduced capacity (increased lost time)
 Optimum Cycle Length for pretimed intersections

Long enough to serve all critical movements

• If too short: increased lost/green time ratio

• If too long: lengthened queues
 Optimum Cycle Length
Webster Formula

C0 = Optimum cycle length (sec)

L: Total lost time per cycle , ∑(l1+ l2) ;
in some textbooks assumed to be the sum of the total yellow and all-
red intervals (sec) (i.e. total intergreen intervals)
Yi = Ratio of the observed flow rate (in straight-through passenger cars
per hour) to the saturation flow rate for the critical approach or lane in
each phase
Cycle length should always be rounded to the nearest 5 sec
Allocate Green to Phases

= Co - ∑(l1+ l2)
 Actual Green
• Actual green time (Displayed) GAct for each
phase i is obtained as:
Gact i = Gi – Ii + tLi
Gact i: actual green time
G i: effective green time
Ii= Intergreeni: (Amber + all red) for Phase i
tLi: (l1+ l2) for Phase i.
 Check for Pedestrians
• When pedestrians are likely to use the
intersection, timing should be checked to
ensure that pedestrians have adequate time
to cross the street.

• Pedestrians are allowed to be in the crosswalk

during Amber and all red phase
 Pedestrian Intervals
• Showing pedestrian walks on phase diagram:
 Pedestrian Intervals
Pedestrian walk period, twped
– White walking man signal
– Time for pedestrian to enter crosswalk
– Fill to match corresponding vehicle phase
– Minimum of 7 seconds
• Time for those waiting to notice
• Added time for slower walkers
 Pedestrian Intervals
Pedestrian clearance period, tcped
– Red flashing hand signal
– Time needed for pedestrian who entered crosswalk at end of
walk period to reach ‘refuge’ before conflicting movements start
– Use 1.2 m/sec walking speed; walk period is available for
slower walkers
Check the pedestrian clearance times
for each phase
Sometimes ‘ tcped + twped ’ is greater than time for
vehicle requirements in corresponding phase

• Check if :
Gact + Integreen > twped + t cped

• If not , need to extend G such that:

Gact + Integreen ≥ twped + t cped
Example of a phase Diagram
 Pretimed Time Signal Design Checklist

 Check left turning vehicles and Select Phasing

 Adjust input volumes to TVUs and Compute critical movement
 Compute Intergreen Interval
 Determine amber time
 Compute cycle length
 Split effective green among critical movements
 Calculate actual greens
 Calculate Pedestrian Time and Check pedestrian safety by adding green if
necessary
 Numerical example
For the signalized intersection and demand volumes
shown in the Figure, using a two phase cycle and
assuming that the pedestrian flows are close to but not
quite zero and there are right turns on red, do the
following:
1. Prepare a representation of the phase scheme
showing the vehicle and pedestrian movements for
each phase.
2. Determine the vehicle intergreen period for each
phase transition. Use an all-red time of 1.0 seconds
for each intergreen and determine the associated
amber times.
3. Calculate the minimum and optimum cycle times
related to vehicles.
4. Establish the pedestrian walk and pedestrian
clearance periods for each
5. Calculate the minimum cycle time related to
pedestrians.
6. Allocate green intervals to each phase
7. Determine actual green assuming (l1+ l2) = 3 sec