Journal of Management Science and Engineering 5 (2020) 303e317

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Journal of Management Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/
journal-of-management-science-and-engineering/

An integrated arterial coordinated control model considering

green wave on branch roads and pedestrian crossing time at
intersections
Jun Zhang a, Huayan Shang a, *, Xiaoxiao Li a, Yao Yao b
a
School of Management Engineering, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, 100070, China
b
Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, 34-40 University Road, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Urban fine management needs scientific traffic management methods and efficient signal
Available online 26 September 2020 control programs. Green wave control is usually used to facilitate the unban traffic.
However, maximum bandwidth optimization on arterial traffic signal timing is usually
Keywords: yielded from the sacrifice of the branch road. The green wave on branch roads and
Coordinated control pedestrian crossing time at intersections are often neglected. In this paper, an extended
Green wave
integrated green wave control method is presented to solve the coordinated control issue,
Maximum bandwidth
which considers green time constraints to ensure necessary time for vehicles on branch
Genetic algorithm
roads and pedestrian crossing time at intersections. Non-coordinated phase saturation is
first introduced to describe the green time on branch roads. Next, the arterial roads are
partitioned to enlarge the green wave bandwidth and an extended green wave optimi-
zation model with green time constraints is proposed. Combined with the green wave
searching method, an improved genetic algorithm is applied. Finally, a real-world case
study in Shenzhen, China, is employed to assess the model. Results show the proposed
model can (1) reach the same public green time as in the traditional method and (2) in-
crease the average sub-green wave bandwidth to improve the signal control.
© 2020 China Science Publishing & Media Ltd. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on
behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the
CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

City management should be as fine as embroidery. Urban fine management must adapt to urban development. Scientific
traffic management methods and efficient signal control programs can improve the traffic environment. With the rapid
growth of vehicles on the roads, constant traffic jams become urgent problems in our daily life. Urban arterial roads are very
attractive to drivers and large numbers of vehicles cause traffic congestions, even lead to traffic accidents (Gartner and
Stamatiadis, 2002). For example, according to the World Health Organization’s estimation, approximately 260,000 people
die in China as a result of road accidents each year (Shan, 2016). In the United States, for the last several years, an average of
25% traffic fatalities and roughly 50% of all traffic injuries are happened around intersections (Federal High way
Administration). To promote urban road construction and optimize traffic microcirculation, it is necessary to strengthen
signal control at road intersections.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: shanghuayan@cueb.edu.cn (H. Shang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmse.2020.09.004
2096-2320/© 2020 China Science Publishing & Media Ltd. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
J. Zhang, H. Shang, X. Li et al. Journal of Management Science and Engineering 5 (2020) 303e317

Green wave control is an arterial traffic coordination control method and generally recognized as one of the most effective
and efficient technologies to reduce traffic congestion (Kelly, 2012). It controls traffic signals of adjacent intersections to turn
traffic lights green one by one according to a certain time sequence in a direction, which allows higher traffic loads and
reduces energy consumption (Lammer and Helbing, 2008; Corman et al., 2009; Li et al., 2018a; Ma and He, 2019). Generally
speaking, relevant signal control strategies can be classified into two categories. One is the isolated intersection timing
control, which mainly includes fixed and dynamic controls (Allsop, 1971). The former is based on the historical traffic statistics
and the later optimizes the green time on the basis of real-time traffic data (Diakaki et al., 2004; Xie et al., 2012; Zhang et al.,
2017). Another category is the coordinated control, which can fall into two sub-categories, i.e., fixed-time coordinated control
and coordinated traffic responsive strategies. Little et al. (Little, 1966; Little et al., 1981) established a mixed integer linear
program model with the maximum green wave bandwidth. Wey (2000) presented a complete formulation of the problem
that includes explicit constraints to model the movement of traffic along the streets between the intersections in a time-
expanded network, as well as constraints to capture the permitted movements from modern signal controllers. Li et al.
(2018b) developed an adaptive coordinated traffic control approach in the presence of traffic demand uncertainty via the
notion of phase clearance reliability. In Soon et al. (2019), a coordinated traffic light control strategy generated green wave
scenario, dispersing heavy traffic on congested roads to the coordinated downstream paths. Xavier Cabezas et al. (2019)
addressed a high-resolution model for the synchronization of traffic lights on transport networks and proposed a hybrid
heuristic algorithm to achieve maximal bandwidth by setting arterial signals. Recently, some new signal control methods
have been proposed (Wang et al., 2016; Bi et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2019; Yao et al.,2019; Zheng et al., 2019a, 2019b).
The coordinated traffic light control of a network should take into account several time-varying parameters, such as cycle
time, green time, and offset. Especially, it is important to consider the interactions between signal setting and road users.
Ceylan and Bell (2004a, 2004b, 2005) used a genetic algorithm to find signal timings that optimize network performance
taking traffic reassignment into account. Varia et al. (2013) presented a joint optimization of signal setting parameters and
dynamic user equilibrium traffic assignment for the congested urban road network. Adacher and Gemma (2017) proposed a
robust algorithm to solve the signal setting problem considering different traffic assignment approaches.
The aforementioned methods are developed to maximize the arterial green wave and two problems are yet to be
adequately resolved. Firstly, green times for pedestrian crossing at intersections are usually neglected. Secondly, the green
wave strategy aims at an overall maximum green wave bandwidth. That is to say, all the intersections of the urban artery are
considered as a whole. Thus, the maximization of the arterial green wave is gained by sacrificing the traffic on branch roads.
This paper proposes an extended model to optimize green wave for arterial traffic signal control. A method for calculating
intersection signal cycles and green time allocation in light of non-coordinated phase saturation is presented, which corrects
the signal cycle time of each intersection with the shortest pedestrian crossing time. The MAXBAND (maximal bandwidth)
model is optimized by arterial segmentation and genetic algorithm (GA) with real number coding for offset optimization is
developed. Finally, a real-world case study in Shenzhen, China, is employed to assess the model. The novelty of this work can
be presented as follows:

The concept of non-coordinated phase saturation is used to the optimum allocation of effective green times between
coordinated and non-coordinated phases.

The practical green times are corrected by using the pedestrian crossing time and an integrated arterial coordinated
control model is established by weights of traffic volume, intersection spacing, and the number of intersections.

GA algorithm with real number encoding for offset optimization, which is suitable for green wave phase difference
optimization of intersections, is developed.

The organization of the rest of the paper is as follows. Section 2 looks at the methodology. In Section 3 we introduce the
GA-based solution method. The optimization result of a real-world road network in Shenzhen is presented in Section 4. At
last, conclusions and future research are elaborated in Section 5.

2. Model formulation

In this section, we establish an integrated green wave model by combining the two schemes of isolated intersection
control and coordinated signal control. Firstly, the green times of each intersection are optimized by the concept of non-
coordinated phase saturation. Secondly, the arterial road is partitioned to enlarge green wave bandwidth and improve
arterial coordinated control. The parameters involved in artery coordinated control are obtained from isolated intersection
signal timing.

2.1. Methods for the cycle time and the green time

The non-coordinated phase of the non-critical intersections, except for those critical intersections, is traditionally allo-
cated the minimum green time, which sacrifices the operating efficiency of the branch roads to a certain extent. In previous
studies, there are various timing strategies, including equal and unequal degrees of saturation, optimum cycle time based on a
selected performance measure, and red and blank times for equal delay and equal queue length (Kelly, 2012; Little, 1966; Little

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et al., 1981; Wey, 2000; Soon et al., 2019; Cabezas et al., 2019; Webster, 1958). Scholars mainly adopted two optimization
methods, i.e., equal/unequal degrees of saturation. The former was proposed by Webster (1958), whose principle is to
minimize the saturation of an intersection by minimizing traffic delays. The latter is mainly applied to the coordinated control
system (Little, 1966; Little et al., 1981). The term non-coordinated phase saturation comes from the concept of unequal de-
grees of saturation (Kelly, 2012). This paper introduces a new variable s, which represents the non-coordinated phase
saturation and describes the allocated green time on branch roads. Thanks to the signal’s re-allocation, long waiting on the
branch roads can be avoided.
From the well-known Webster formula (Webster, 1958), we can derive the optimal cycle time and the optimal green time
for an isolated intersection. Traffic flows in different directions are dynamically updated by

qdmn ¼ 4  q15mn (1)

Where qdmn represents traffic flow (pcu/h) of road m in direction n; q15mn is traffic flow(pcu/15min) of road m in direction n.
The cycle time and the effective green time are calculated by (Webster, 1958).

1:5Li þ 5
Ci ¼ (2)
1  Yi

gei ¼ Ci  Li (3)

Where Ci denotes cycle time of intersection i.Li is the total loss time of intersection i. Yi is the sum of each maximum flow ratios
of different phases. gei is the effective green time of intersection i.
In order to make the coordinated phase reach a larger green wave band, the non-coordinated phase saturation s is
introduced. It is assumed that s ¼ 0:9, and all the remained effective green times of the public cycle are allocated to the
coordinated phase of the arterial road. Based on the number of arrival/departure vehicles on the non-coordinated phase, the
effective green time of non-coordinated phases is given by

CK  qN ¼ SN  geN  s (4)

CK  qN CK
geN ¼ ¼ yN (5)
SN  s s

Where CK denotes the cycle of critical intersections. qN is the traffic flow of non-coordinated phase. SN is lane saturation flow
of non-coordinated phase. geN denotes the effective green time of non-coordinated phases. s is the non-coordinated phase
saturation. yN denotes traffic flow ratio of non-coordinated phase.
The green light display time of non-coordinated phase at non-critical intersection i is calculated by

gNi ¼ geNi þ l  A (6)

Where gNi denotes the green light display time of non-coordinated phase at non-critical intersection i. geNi denotes the
effective green time of non-coordinated phase at non-critical intersection i. l is the start of loss time. A is the yellow time.
The effective green time of coordinated phase at non-critical intersection i is formulated as

geYi ¼ gei  geNi (7)

Where geYi denotes the effective green time of coordinated phase at non-critical intersection i. gei is the effective green time at
intersection i.
The green time of coordinated phase at non-critical intersection i is rewritten as

gYi ¼ geYi þ l  A (8)

For a critical intersection, the green time is directly calculated by the traffic flow of each phase due to its high saturation.


y
gk ¼ Ck  Lk k (9)
Yk

Where gk denotes the phase green time at critical intersection k. Lk is the total loss time at critical intersection k. Yykk is ratio of
phase flow at critical intersection k.
In reality, pedestrian crosswalks are often set near the intersections. Thus, the minimum green time can be formulated as
(Kelly, 2012).

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Lp
gminp ¼ 7 þ I (10)
Vp

Where gminp is the pedestrian crossing safety time.Lp denotes the pedestrian crossing length.Vp denotes the pedestrian
crossing speed and I is the pedestrian green interval.
Considering the pedestrian crossing time, the practical minimum green time satisfies
 
0
gej ¼ max gej ; gminpj (11)

0 is the minimum green time of phase j and g is the green time in phase j.
Where gej ej
Therefore, the optimum signal cycle time for each intersection holds that
0 1
X
J  

C 0 ¼ @C þ m gminpj  gej gminpj > gej ; m ¼ 1; gminpj  gej ; m ¼ 0A (12)
j¼1

Ck0 ¼ maxðC 0 Þ; n ¼ 1; 2; /N (13)

The signal cycle time of a non-critical intersection is determined by the public cycle time of the arterial coordination
control system. This method not only takes the traffic demands on the branch roads into account, but also adjusts the cycle
time with the consideration of the pedestrian crossing time.

2.2. Integrated arterial coordinated control model

In the green wave zone, only vehicles entering the arterial road during the green times can go smoothly all the way, which
means that vehicles would encounter the red lights at some intersections if their entry times are not within the green times.
Therefore, considering the sub-green waves in the arterial road can improve the traffic efficiency to a certain extent (Yan et al.,
2019; Varia et al., 2013). Even if vehicles can’t enjoy the green lights all the way, the smoothness of the journey can be
improved. In this paper, the green wave band of some intersections can be widened by optimizing the phase difference of
intersections, on the premise of ensuring the traditional green wave bandwidth. While pursuing the public green wave
bandwidths, the sub-green wave bandwidths of some continuous intersections are also taken into account. The way is to
consider a kind of integrated green wave band which includes both the public and sub-green green wave bands, as shown in
Fig. 1.

2.2.1. Signal coordination approach

The arterial coordinated control system can be represented by a time-distance diagram, as shown in Fig. 1. It means that a
vehicle traveling on an artery reaches an intersection at the time of in-band and passes smoothly. The MAXBAND method is to

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the integrated green wave model.

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get the maximum green wave by adjusting the offset between adjacent intersections. It ensures the same public green wave
bandwidth. However, when the offset between upstream and downstream intersections changes within a certain range, it
does not affect the public green wave bandwidth of the artery. Thus, we can make the green wave band at some intersections
wider by adjusting the offset between the intersections. This paper partitions the arterial roads and considers the green wave
bandwidths of both the arterial and branch roads.
Since the practical effect of the same width green wave band formed by each sub-artery is not same, we establish an
integrated green wave model composed of sub-bandwidths with weight factors. They mainly include the intersection
spacing, the traffic volume, and the number of intersections of the green wave sub-bands. The integrated green wave function
is as follows:

X
2 X X
N Nþ1j
Z ¼ max akji bkji (14)
k¼1 j¼2 i¼1

Where N is the total number of intersections.j is the number of intersections that can connect with each other to form a green
wave band and j2f2; 3;/;Ng. i is the number of combinations of green wave coordination. bkji is the green wave bandwidth of
the ith combination involving j intersection with direction k.akji is the corresponding weight of partitioned artery green wave
bandwidth. k represents the traffic directions. k ¼ 1 indicates the positive direction while k ¼ 2 indicates the negative one.
The key is to find the connections between the parameters. Fig. 2 depicts the basic principle of MAXBAND. Consider a two-
way arterial road with N signal lights, the green waves include the positive and negative ones. It is assumed that the coor-
dination control system covers N intersections along the arterial road and S is the set of the intersections. Generally speaking,
there is only one green wave band in each signal cycle, namely, the green wave band would not be divided into several in-
tervals in one signal cycle. The time variables take the signal cycle as the benchmark and each signal on the artery has the
same cycle length. Green signal ratio is determined in light of the single intersection’s signal timing method. In Fig. 2, b1 ðb2 Þ
represents the positive (negative) green wave bandwidth. ri ðrj Þ represents the red time of intersection i (intersectionj).
w1i ðw2i Þ denotes the time difference between the positive (negative) green wave band edge of intersection i and its red light
ending (beginning) time. t1ij ðt2ij Þ represents the travel time of the positive (negative) direction from intersection i to inter-
section j (intersection j to intersectioni). f1ij ðf2ij Þ represents the time difference between the red light center of intersection
iðjÞ in front of (behind) positive (negative) green wave and the red light center of intersection jðiÞ in front of (behind) positive
(negative) green wave.
Based on the principle of MAXBAND (see Fig. 2), the model parameters and their relationships are described as

1 1
f1ij þ rj þ w1j ¼ ri þ w1i þ t1ij (15)
2 2
1 1
f2ij þ rj þ w2j ¼ ri þ w2i þ t2ij (16)
2 2

The value of f1ij and f2ij have very important constraint significance. The sum of f1ij and f2ij must be an integer. From the
above two equations, we can get

Fig. 2. Basic principle diagram of MAXBAND.

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ðw1i þ w2i Þ  w1j þ w2j þ t1ij þ t2ij ¼ mði; jÞ  ri  rj ; mði; jÞ2Z (17)

The following relationships can also be yielded from Fig. 2, i.e.,

w1i þ b1  1  ri (18)

w2i þ b2  1  ri (19)

The model becomes a linear programming one including N intersections.

X
2 X X
N Nþ1j
Z ¼ max akji bkji
k¼1 j¼2 i¼1
8
>
> w1i þ b1  1  ri ;
>
> (20)
>
< w2i þ b2  1  ri ;
s:t: ðw1i þ w2i Þ  ðw1ðiþ1Þ þ w2ðiþ1Þ Þ þ ðt1i þ t2i Þ ¼ mi þ ðriþ1  ri Þ;
>
>
>
> w ; w ; b ; b  0; i ¼ 1; 2/n:
>
: 1i 2i 1 2
mi 2Z

2.2.2. Weight of sub-band

The green wave is mainly affected by the intersection spacings, traffic volume, and the number of non-critical in-
tersections. The more intersections with a same bandwidth are, the better the green wave is. It should be noted that the
intersection spacings include the branch roads with two or more intersections. A special case is that a green wave band
consists of all arterial intersections, which is the perfect state and the weight value is equal to 1. For calculating the weights,
we consider three cases including two intersections, more than two intersections, and N intersections.
8
>
< Q kji Lkji N kji j¼2
akji ¼ Q kji Dkji Nkji 2<j<N (21)
>
: 1 j¼N

Where Q kji is the volume weight, Lk2i and Dkji are the spacing weights, Nkji is the weight of the number of intersections. Q kji is
defined as the ratio between the average traffic volume of the sub-band and that of the entire artery, i.e.,

P
iþj1
qkn , P
2 P
N
qkn
n¼i
Q kji ¼ k¼1 n¼1 (22)
j 2N

Where n denotes an intersection. qkn is the traffic flow of intersection n of direction k and N is the total number of
intersections.
The sub-band consisting of two intersections indicates that a worse effect of green wave may be generated if their spacing
is long since the traffic is easily dispersed. The spacing weight Lk2i is defined as

P
Nþ1j
Lk2i  Lk2i
i¼1
Lkji ¼ (23)
P
Nþ1j
Lk2i
i¼1

Lk2i is the spacing of the partitioned artery k2i.

For sub-band consisting of more than two intersections, the smaller variance of the spacings is, the better effect the green
wave has. The spacing weight Dkji is defined as

P
Nþ1j
Dkji  Dkji
i¼1
Dkji ¼ (24)
P
Nþ1j
Dkji
i¼1

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Where Dkji is the variance of the spacings.

The greater the number of intersections in the same band is, the better effect the green wave has. Therefore, the weight of
the number of intersections Nkji is defined as

j
N kji ¼ (25)
N

3. Solution method

To synthesize the green wave band, the sub-bandwidth of different combinations should be considered. Based on the
optimized green wave cycle time and green time of arterial roads, the constraints of green time in the coordinated phase of
each intersection are obtained. Then the initial phase difference combinations can be yielded, and the green start and end
times of each intersection can be calculated. In this section, we propose GA-based algorithms for obtaining the integrated
green wave. We firstly describe the algorithm to obtain the integrated green wave bandwidth and then introduce the opti-
mization algorithm.

3.1. Algorithm for the integrated green wave bandwidth

The sub-bandwidth should be clear and definite. We set up the initial offset with a specific set of offsets, and calculate the
green start/end times of each intersection. Then a searching algorithm is designed to obtain the integrated green wave
bandwidth. The computation process of the algorithm is as follows.

Step 1. Calculate the green start/end time (rcgij /gcrij ) of each intersection in light of the initial offset combinations. The
relationship between parameters is shown in Fig. 3;
Step 2. Set j ¼ N and the start time of the green wave at the first intersection to be y1 ¼ rcg11 ;
Step 3. Search for the start time of the green wave (yb ). Determine whether y2 ¼ y1 þ D1 =V1 is within the interval ½rcg2j ;
gcr2j  of the second intersection. If so, carry on calculating the remaining intersections in turn. y3 ¼ y2 þ D2 = V2 . y4 ¼ y3 þ
D3 =V3 ,/, yN ¼ yN1 þ DN1 =VN1 . Determine whether y3 ;y4 ;/;yN is within the interval ½rcg3j ;gcr3j ;½rcg4j ;gcr4j ;/;½rcgNj ;
gcrNj . If all intersections satisfy the conditions, then yb ¼ y1 ¼ rcg11 and y1 ¼ y1 þ 1 hold. Otherwise, lety1 ¼ y1 þ 1, and
jump back to this loop until y1 ¼ gcr11 ;
Step 4. Search for the end time of the green wave (ye ). If ye ¼ gcr11 , then the green wave bandwidth is 0. Otherwise, record
ye as y1 , and yield ye ¼ y1 when it falls outside of ½rcgij ; gcrij  at the first time. The search process is shown in Fig. 4;
Step 5. Let ybe ¼ ye  yb ;
Step 6. Let j ¼ N  1 and search for all possible combinations involving j successive intersections in N intersections;
Step 7. Calculate the green wave bandwidth for each combination and yield the relevant integrated green-wave
bandwidth.

Fig. 3. Relationships between signal sequence parameter.

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Fig. 4. Search process diagram of green wave.

3.2. Algorithm to optimize the integrated green wave bandwidth

Genetic algorithm (GA) is used to maximize the integrated green wave bandwidth. The flow chart is showed in Fig. 5. Since
the offset are integers, real number encoding is introduced for iterative optimization. The computation process of the al-
gorithm is as follows.

Step 1. Establish an optimization model in Formula (20);

Step 2. Set the constraints in the algorithm;
Step 3. Determine the encoding method;
Step 4. Determine the individual evaluation method;
Step 5. Determine genetic operators. The selection operator uses the optimal strategy, and the crossover/mutation position
lie at the positions of each intersection’s offset.

The crossover/mutation position can be formulated as

a ¼ 1 þ intðN  randðÞÞ (26)

where randðÞ represents the random number of [0,1).

Step 6. Determine GA’s operating parameters including the number of populations NP and the end of the evolutionary
generation G.

4. Empirical studies

To verify the applicability of the proposed methodology, the optimization model and GA algorithm are applied to a real-
world road network in Baoan District, Shenzhen, China. The system has been implemented using Matlab R2012a language
and on a personal computer with Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @2.40 GHz 2.40 GHz and 4.00G RAM, and running
Windows 7 Professional.

4.1. Data collection

Shajing District is a sub-district of Bao’an District of Shenzhen City, Guangdong province, China. It was selected for data
collection during the evening peak hours (16:00e18:00). Fig. 6 shows the map of this district. Shajing Xinsha Road (here-
inafter referred to as Xinsha Road) starts from Shajing Jincheng Road in the west and ends at Shajing Donghuan Road in the
east, which is an important arterial road connecting Shajing street with heavy traffic. The traffic in the latitudinal direction is

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Fig. 5. Flow chart of offset of the arterial green wave.

much higher than that in the longitudinal direction. Especially, on such as Minfu Road, Shajing Street, Shajing Road, and
Huanzhen Road, and Yongtong road, it is seriously congested in the east-west direction.
Five intersections on Xinsha Road from west to east are selected as the subjects of our survey, i.e., Xinsha Road-Minfu Road,
Xinsha Road-Shajing Street, and Xinsha Road-Shajing Road, and Xinsha Road-Huanzhen Road, and Xinsha Road-Yongdao
Road, which are numbered from 1 to 5, as shown in Fig. 7. We recorded the vehicle flows from these sites, including
traffic volume, lane conditions, and crosswalk length, and signal timing. The survey lasted for two months from July to August
2017, and 20 undergraduate students were recruited. Direct observation and video tape recording were simultaneously
employed. All field works were finished on weekdays with good weather conditions.
From Fig. 7, it can be seen that the spacings between adjacent intersections are all less than 800 m. Moreover, the traffic on
the branch roads differs greatly from the arterial road. Thus, it is very suitable for the arterial traffic signal coordination

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Fig. 6. Shajing District. The picture is taken from the website: http://map.baidu.com/.

Fig. 7. Surveyed intersections on Xinsha Road.

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Fig. 8. Traffic volume at each intersection.

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control on Xinsha road. Buses, coaches, and sedans, and a few trucks are converted into standard cars. The traffic volume
diagram of each intersection is depicted in Fig. 8.

4.2. Signal control scheme

An arterial coordinated control timing scheme is proposed in this section. The relevant control parameters are yielded by
the model in Section 2. The public cycle times and the green times at different phases are obtained by the model in Section 2.1.

4.2.1. Cycle time and green time

The direction from west to east is defined as a positive direction and its opposite direction (from east to west) is defined as
a negative direction in this paper. In accordance with traffic volume, East-West (E-W) are set to be coordinated phases and
North-South (N-S) are non-coordinated phases. The ratio of the flows at coordinated/non-coordinated phases and the cycle
time at each intersection are listed in Table 1. Y represents the total ratios, namely, the value of the fourth column is the sum
corresponding to the second and third columns. C represents the optimal signal cycle time at each intersection (Webster,
1958). The cycle time of Intersection 2 (Xinsha Road-Shajing Street) is 93s, which is the maximum one. Thus, this intersec-
tion is a critical intersection.
Pedestrian crossing time is used to calibrate the green time of each phase. The public cycle time of this arterial coordi-
nation system is 93s. Phase timing schemes are listed in Table 2. Data in the second and third columns are respectively the
green times obtained by the traditional method (Kelly, 2012; Little, 1966; Little et al., 1981; Webster, 1958) and our proposed
method. The cycle times calculated by the two methods are the same of 93 s.
Compared to the traditional method, our method not only ensures the green wave bands for the coordinated phases on the
artery, but also leaves enough time for the non-coordinated phases on the branch roads. The biggest change occurs at
Intersection 1, since the cycle time difference between Intersection 1 and the critical intersection is the largest and the
improved timing scheme has obvious effect. Intersection 3 is a critical intersection, so its green time allocation is more
reasonable in accordance with equal degrees of saturation (Webster, 1958). The optimal cycle time of Intersection 2 is not very
different from that of the critical Intersection 3 and the effect is not obvious. For Intersection 4 and Intersection 5, there is little
difference since the traditional green times of all the phases are corrected with the minimum pedestrian crossing time. On the
whole, our method better takes into account the demand on branch roads, which is conducive to the improvement of the
overall road service.

Table 1
Flow ratio and cycle time of each intersection.

Intersection Ratios at coordinated phase Ratios at non-coordinated phase Y C

1 0.48 0.17 0.65 78
2 0.57 0.12 0.69 89
3 0.57 0.13 0.70 93
4 0.56 0.11 0.67 84
5 0.59 0.10 0.69 88

Table 2
Signal timing schemes by different methods.

Intersection Phase Traditional green time/s Improved green time/s Yellow time/s
1 Go straight (E-W) 46 45 3
Turn left (E) 24 23 3
Turn left (S) 14 16 3
2 Go straight (E-W) 44 43 3
Turn left (E) 25 25 3
Turn left -(N) 15 16 3
3 Go straight (E-W) 39 39 3
Turn left (E) 29 29 3
Turn left and turn right (N) 16 16 3
4 Go straight (E-W) 34 34 3
Turn left (E-W) 35 35 3
Go straight (N-S) and turn left 15 15 3
5 Go straight (E-W) 62 62 3
Turn left (E-W) 7 7 3
Go straight (N-S) and turn left 15 15 3

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Table 3
Weight of sub-band.

Number of intersections with sub-bands Traffic direction Sub-band 1/weight Sub-band 2/weight Sub-band 3/weight Sub-band 4/weight
2 Positive 0.37 0.32 0.17 0.29
Negative 0.20 0.19 0.43 0.39
3 Positive 0.49 0.18 0.49 e
Negative 0.45 0.18 0.61 e
4 Positive 0.36 0.20 e e
Negative 0.18 0.39 e e
5 Positive 1.00 e e e
Negative 1.00 e e e

Fig. 9. Convergence of GA.

4.2.2. Weight of sub-band and phase difference

After determining the public cycle time of the coordinated system, weights of each sub-bandwidth can be calculated and
the offsets between intersections can be optimized by the GA algorithm in Section 3. The weights are listed in Table 3, which
include those of both positive and negative sub-bands.
Fig. 9 shows the convergence of GA. It can be found that the objective function value converges relatively quickly. It begins
to converge in less than 200 generations and the desired combinations of offsets can be obtained, which proves that the GA
algorithm in this paper for offset optimization is effective. And the offsets at each intersection are presented in Table 4.

4.3. Comparations

Due to the randomness of the GA, the algorithm has been run for 15 times. We take the average of 15 experiments. In the
calculation process, we assume the average travel speed is 45 km/h. The results of our comparison are showed in Fig. 10.
Fig. 10 shows that a same public green wave bandwidth can be obtained by our model and the traditional model, which
reaches about 48s. However, the average sub-green wave bandwidth formed by our model is better than that by the tradi-
tional method.
Table 5 depicts the comparisons of vehicle travel times and delay times on the artery obtained by our model and the
traditional model. It is proved that our model can significantly reduce the overall delay time and the average travel time on
the artery.

Table 4
The offsets.

Intersections 1 2 3 4 5
Offset of traditional green wave 0 3 0 49 22
offset of improved green wave 0 0 0 49 33
Offset adjustment 0 3 0 0 11

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Fig. 10. Sub-green wave bandwidth comparison.

Table 5
Arterial evaluation indicators comparison.

Indicators Positive Negative

Traditional scheme Improved scheme Improved amount Traditional scheme Improved scheme Improved amount
Delay time/s 39.9 34.5 5.4 15.2 12.1 3.1
Travel time/s 148.5 133.3 15.2 110.1 107.1 3.0

5. Conclusions

In this paper, an integrated arterial coordinated control model is proposed with consideration of both green wave on
branch roads and pedestrian crossing time at intersections. Four kinds of control parameters are introduced including the
cycle time, the green time in the coordinated/uncoordinated phase, the green time of the arterial and the offset. The Webster
timing method is adopted to obtain the optimal signal cycle time, in which an optimized method for the signal cycle time of
the intersection is proposed. The cycle time and the green times at each intersection are optimized. In order to enlarge green
wave bandwidth, we partition the arterial roads. Combined with a searching method, an improved genetic algorithm (GA) is
applied to optimize the offset of the artery. Finally, a real-world case study in Shenzhen, China, is employed to assess the
model. Results show that the average public green wave bandwidth of all intersections obtained by the two methods is almost
the same. However, our model can increase the average sub-green wave bandwidth, and thus significantly reduce the overall
vehicle delay and the average travel time on the artery.
This work can be extended in a few directions. First, this paper optimizes the green wave control system and considers the
traffic on the branch roads. However, only a linear corridor with a series of sections is selected and the nearby intersections
are not taken into account sufficiently. We think the proposed model can be applied a network, which requires more
fieldwork. Our future work will focus on the network traffic control systems. Second, the adaptive traffic control with
reinforcement learning may be a useful way to meet the requirements of real-field traffic control. Future study may consider
the adaptive traffic control. Finally, the consideration of traffic equity will be very interesting when considering the traffic
demand on the branch roads.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

This research was jointly supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71971144), the
Beijing Natural Science Foundation (8192006) and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission Foundation
(SZ201910038021).

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