Performance Evaluation of Transit Signal Priority Strategies for BRT in Taichung: A Simulation Approach

In order to improve the service quality and traffic efficiency of bus rapid transit (BRT), transit signal priority (TSP) used in the adaptive traffic signal control system has been viewed as important opportunities for reducing overall traffic congestions and improving bus transit services. The first BRT line in Taichung, Taiwan is operating in July 2014, while fixed-time signal timings are used at all signalized intersections. According to the detection technology presently used in Taichung, a cross-way considered TSP method (CCTSP) is designed. The CCTSP, including vehicle detection, time prediction and strategy decision, aims at reallocating green times among the phases with considering the real-time traffic flow condition and the bus priority request. VAP, vehicle actuated programming, is a sub-module of micro simulation platform Vissim. The VAP based simulation platform is developed to evaluate TSPs in details. Testbed of the BRT line Network in Taichung-Port Road is established in VISSIM according to the collected BRT planning data in Taichung. Extensive VISSIM simulation results have demonstrated the potential of the developed CCTSP in balancing the BRT requests and overall traffic efficiency, and indicated that the signal priorities derived from CCTSP has better performance.