Intersection control strategy optimization based on exchangeable lanes modeling

Purpose Due to the conflicts between left turn traffic and opposite straight-going traffic in urban traffic network, some of the traffic lanes cannot be used to discharge vehicles during its green phases and the intersection capacity can be greatly reduced. This study/paper aims to reduce the effect of conflicts and increase its capacity through the reasonable pre-signal phase time with the exchangeable lanes. Design/methodology/approach This paper took into consideration various influence factors to intersection capacity and formulated the capacity optimization model based on 0-1 mixed-integer programming model. This model is efficiently solved by standard branch-and-bound algorithms. Findings The authors took an intersection as an example and solved the optimal signal timing and entrance lane capacity via this model. Then, simulations were carried out to verify the effect of the exchangeable lanes strategy of this intersection through the simulation software VISSIM and take the traffic volume and delay as outputs, which indicated that this model has better performance. Originality/value The front-end control strategy can not only exploit the full potential of the intersection but also significantly improve the operational efficiency of the intersection. It plays a positive role in improving urban intersection congestion.