Impacts of smart signals on intersection capacity and level of service

Abstract

The recent development of advanced ("smart") signal controllers has very significant impacts on the performance of signalized intersections. These controllers have distinct and novel operating characteristics, necessitating a new adaptation of our analysis methodologies to the developing technologies. In this paper the authors provide a preliminary analysis of the potential capacity and level-of-service implications of an OPAC-based controller. This type of controller employs advanced detection and optimization techniques and is highly adaptive. It provides a very efficient allocation of the right-of-way among the competing traffic streams at the intersection and substantially reduces operational delay.