A Comparison Study of Different Offset Transition Lengths in Simulation Environment

Signal timing transition has recently been highlighted with Adaptive Traffic Control Systems (ATCS) providing advanced traffic signal operation including real-time grouping of coordinated intersections. Signal timing transition occurs when such signal timings as cycles and offsets are changed at coordinated intersections. Setting a proper length of signal timing transition has become in interest for real-time coordination. This paper presents a study verifying the effects of different lengths of signal timing transition. Four different transition lengths were tested and compared in simulation environment. They include a single, double, treble, quadruple cycle length transitions. The number of cycles represents the ones used (interpolation) for transition. Signal timings were controlled to be adjusted uniformly and discretely during a transition period. Transition times considered in the test are within ranges of percents of cycle lengths. It was found from the study that a single cycle transition performs better than or at least equal to the ones from the other with fifteen different operational conditions, which are developed based on a hypothetical arterial. It was suggested that a single cycle length transition be beneficial when amount of transition is within percents of cycle lengths.