Research on Platoon Dispersion Delay of Traffic Flow considering Coordinated Control

Abstract

To improve the traffic capacity and reduce the delay of signalized intersections, the delay of coordinated control intersections is studied. Based on the freedom and randomness of the speed change and considering the delay problem caused by the discrete behavior, the authors deduced a new delay model. Firstly, by analyzing the kinematic behavior of traffic flow under coordinated control, it is found that traffic flow reaches the downstream intersection in two different forms. The two forms were as follows: the tail vehicles of discrete traffic flow were truncated and the front vehicles of discrete traffic flow were stopped. Then, the authors deduced the new delay model by analyzing the two conditions. Finally, the delay of the two cases is analyzed, which can be used as the basis for setting the phase difference between coordinated control intersections. The correctness of the model is verified by designing two example coordinated control intersections under unsaturated flow with MATLAB. Results show that the discrete traffic flows will have different impacts on delay or traffic efficiency when they arrive at the downstream intersection in different forms. Through the analysis of the delay of vehicles, when the green split is less than 0.64, the tail truncation delay is greater than the front truncation delay. When the green split is greater than or equal to 0.64, the opposite is true. The phase difference of upstream and downstream intersections can be optimized and coordinated according to the goal that vehicles can smoothly pass through the coordinated control intersection or ensure the minimum delay, so as to give full play to the space-time utilization of the coordinated control intersection.

Platoon dispersion model in the mixed traffic environment

“…established a dynamic platoon discrete model, which can detect the change of traffic flow in the cross section of the road, predict the evolution of traffic flow, and further generate a signal timing plan. In order to reduce the delay at signalized intersections, Liu et al18 derived a new delay model based on the degree of freedom and randomness of speed changes and considering the delay caused by the discrete behavior of the platoon.…”