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CIVL 440 Transportation Engineering II

Actuated Traffic Signals & Signal

Coordination
[Part 3 – Traffic Signal Analysis]
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Actuated Signals

• Pre-timed signals operate with constant cycle lengths, phase sequence,

and interval timings.
• The success of pre-timed signals depends on the degree to which
actual traffic volumes agree with the flow rates built into the signal
timing design
• Traffic demand, however, varies with time and often displays short-term
fluctuations that can cause an isolated single cycle, or a short series of
cycles to fail
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Actuated Signals…2

• Several pre-timed cycle schemes can be programmed for an

intersection to “statically” respond to demand changes over times of the
day (i.e. early morning, am peak period, mid-day, pm peak-period,
evening).
• However, this still assumes a fixed demand variation and cannot
respond to demand fluctuations

 Traffic Actuated Signal Calculations

• Max. Number of Vehicles caught between So
stop bar and detector
l
A
N= +1
l + So
A = detector location from stopbar A
l = average vehicle length
So = vehicle distance gap
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Actuated Signals…3

 Min. Green to discharge N vehicles:

 A  3600
Gmin = t sd +  + 1 x
 l + S o  qs
t sd = start up delay (sec)
qs = saturation flow (pcu/hr)

 If no detector trigger within Gmin, phase change

 If detector trigger within Gmin, green time extended by a fixed
interval called the “unit extension of green”
 Extension, h, must be long enough for vehicles that trigger the
extension to cover distance A with a speed v:
A
h=
v
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Green Extensions
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Actuated Signals…4

 Green Extensions
• For green extensions to continue, successive vehicles must not be more than h
seconds apart.
• Green extensions provided up to the Maximum Green for the phase.
• Maximum Green determined by designing intersection as a pre-timed
intersection.
 Selection of A and h
• Hmin requires vehicles to be able to stop safely if a vehicle just crosses the
detector at the end of one unit extension time.

S safe
hmin =
v
v2
S safe = vtr +
2 fg
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Actuated Signals…5

 Above hmin, how is h selected? Consider the average headway, havg

• Case 1: If h << havg, most likely no green extensions will be provided beyond the
min. green + 1 unit green extension
• Case 2: If h >> havg, green extensions will be provided such that the maximum
green will be most likely reached after the passage of only a few vehicles.
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Actuated Signals…6

 Steps in Designing an Actuated SignalChoose h from the Optimum

Unit Extension vs. Average Traffic Flow per Phase Graph
1. Calculate distance of detector from stop bar, A
2. Calculate Min. Green for each phase
3. Calculate Intergreen time
4. Repeat for each approach; all components of the min. cycle are now ready
5. Calculate Max. Green using Webster’s formula and corresponding green splits
(as if signal was pre-timed)

 * Ped. demands can influence setting of min. greens.

 * A fully actuated signal is usually not used within a coordinated
signal system
 Shortcomings
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Pre-timed Signal Coordination

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Pre-timed Signal Coordination…2

 Width of through bands

offset
• # uninterrupted vehicles=
width of band/avg headway
• “balanced design” when
through bands in both
directions are equal
• “preferential design” or an
unbalanced design may be
more appropriate during
peak periods with
unbalanced directional flows
 Coordination solutions can
be determined:
• Graphically
• Analytically
• Using computers
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Pre-timed Signal Coordination…2

 Graphically Optimized
offset
• Increase Intersection “D”
offset
• Decrease Intersection “C”
offset

Bandwidth Widened for both

Directions (red lines & arrows)
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Pre-timed Signal Coordination…4

Intersection C

Intersection B

Intersection A
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Pre-timed Signal Coordination…5

 From Example
• Min. bandwidth is 11.3 sec.
• If Yellow is considered to allow for last vehicle to clear intersection,
Min. bandwidth is 11.3 sec. + 5 sec = 16.3 sec.
• It is obvious which offset can be changed to increase bandwidth