Date of Award
9-25-2024
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.Sc.
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Keywords
Car;Signalized intersection;Traffic conflicts;Traffic signal countdown timers;Traffic simulation;Truck
Supervisor
Chris Lee
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Traffic Signal Countdown Timer (TSCT) displays the remaining times of green, yellow, and red intervals at a traffic signal. While TSCT has widely been implemented in various countries, the effects of TSCT on traffic involving passenger cars and trucks remain unexplored. Thus, this study investigates the impacts of TSCT on traffic safety and efficiency at signalized intersections with high truck volume along the Huron Church Road in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Driver behavior and traffic flow were predicted using Vissim traffic simulation for the four scenarios: no-timer, Green Signal Countdown Timer (GSCT), Red Signal Countdown Timer (RSCT), and a combination of GSCT and RSCT (GSCT+RSCT). Based on the observational data from previous field studies, changes in driver behaviours in the presence of TSCT were replicated by dynamically adjusting the simulation parameters in different signal phases using Vissim-COM interface. The result shows that the Crash Potential Index (CPI) decreased by 37% while the network-wide speed increased by 6% in the GSCT+RSCT scenario compared to the no-timer scenario. Although the RSCT reduced the speed but it increased the number of vehicles entering the intersection in the first 5 seconds of the green phase by 61% and reduced the CPI by 23%. The increase in speed near the intersection during the green phase was observed in the GSCT scenario whereas smoother deceleration rate of approach vehicles during the red phase was observed in the RSCT scenario. Moreover, the TSCT helped cars avoid rear-end conflicts and increased truck speed. This study demonstrates that TSCT can potentially improve safety and efficiency of car-truck mixed traffic at signalized intersections.
Recommended Citation
Veerakumar, Vadhul Krishnan, "Influence of Traffic Signal Countdown Timers on Safety and Efficiency at Signalized Intersections" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9547.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9547