Pilot Survey – Queue Management Strategies for Urban Traffic Control Systems

BACKGROUND 1.1 Advances in traffic signal optimization have produced increases in the capacity of urban road networks, but recent growth in demand has meant that many junctions operate at or above saturation levels. Delay costs increase dramatically when queues extend to block upstream junctions and queue management strategies are now required to ensure that local traffic signals operate effectively when oversaturated conditions occur. 1.2 The aims of this SERC-funded "Queue Management Strategies" project are as follows: (a) To generalise the strategies for queue management that were developed and tested empirically in Bangkok (See ITS WP 249 and WP 251); (b) To develop a computer graphics model to represent queue propagation; (c) To test the strategies' applicability and performance in UK networks; (d) To investigate their incorporation into standard signal optimization programs