TITLE:
Longitudinal Performance Assessment of Traffic Signal System Impacted by Long-Term Interstate Construction Diversion Using Connected Vehicle Data
AUTHORS:
Enrique D. Saldivar-Carranza, Margaret Hunter, Howell Li, Jijo Mathew, Darcy M. Bullock
KEYWORDS:
Traffic Signal Performance Measures, Connected Vehicle, Longitudinal Study, Big Data
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Transportation Technologies,
Vol.11 No.4,
September
14,
2021
ABSTRACT: Local arterials can be significantly impacted by diversions from adjacent
work zones. These diversions often occur on unofficial detour routes due to
guidance received on personal navigation devices. Often, these routes do not
have sufficient sensing or communication
equipment to obtain infrastructure-based traffic signal performance
measures, so other data sources are required to identify locations being
significantly affected by diversions. This paper examines the network impact
caused by the start of an 18-month closure of the I-65/70 interchange (North
Split), which usually serves approximately 214,000 vehicles per day in
Indianapolis, IN. In anticipation of some proportion of the public diverting
from official detour routes to local streets, a connected vehicle monitoring
program was established to provide daily performances measures for over 100
intersections in the area without the need for vehicle sensing equipment. This
study reports on 13 of the most impacted signals on an alternative arterial to
identify locations and time of day where operations are most degraded, so that
decision makers have quantitative information to make informed adjustments to
the system. Individual vehicle movements at the studied locations are analyzed
to estimate changes in volume, split failures, downstream blockage, arrivals on
green, and travel times. Over 130,000 trajectories were analyzed in an 11-week
period. Weekly afternoon peak period volumes increased by approximately 455%,
split failures increased 3%, downstream blockage increased 10%, arrivals on
green decreased 16%, and travel time increase 74%. The analysis performed in
this paper will serve as a framework for any agency that wants to assess
traffic signal performance at hundreds of locations with little or no existing
sensing or communication infrastructure to prioritize tactical retiming and/or
longer-term infrastructure investments.