Agent Based Traffic Signals Regulating Flow On a Basic Grid

A simulation study on traffic light optimisation with agent-based behaviour of the traffic signals

ANALYZING AND COMPARING TRAFFIC NETWORK CONDITIONS WITH A QUALITY TOOL BASED ON FLOATING CAR AND STATIONARY DATA

Cities with medium to high traffic volumes are expected to keep the traffic rolling in a most efficient way. Accidents, construction sites or large events are counteracting this effort. In addition, cities are facing the fact that traffic signal plans configured and optimized several years ago are no longer suitable for current traffic volumes. Expert knowledge of traffic engineers as well as reports from citizens may help to find out on irregular or inefficient traffic flow. However, in most cases it is fairly impossible to determine if observed deviations from the expected traffic conditions occur only once, periodically or permanently. Therefore there is a need to explore the causes for the changed traffic flows, and also for evaluating the impacts of construction sites, events, or changed traffic signal control plans in a systematic manner. For tackling this task, a prototype of a traffic quality analysis tool (TQAT) is developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It is based on a tool which came into operation for the representation of recent traffic conditions during the soccer world championship 2006 in Germany in the police department of Cologne (1). The prototype of the TQAT is set up as an application for the City of Nuremberg within the project ORINOKO

ANALYZING AND COMPARING TRAFFIC NETWORK CONDITIONS WITH A QUALITY TOOL BASED ON FLOATING CAR AND STATIONARY DATA

Cities with medium to high traffic volumes are expected to keep the traffic running in a most efficient way. Accidents, construction sites or large events are counteracting this effort. In addition, cities are facing the fact that traffic signal plans configured and optimized several years ago are no longer suitable for current traffic volumes. Expert knowledge of traffic engineers as well as reports from citizens may help to find out on irregular or inefficient traffic flow. However, in most cases it is fairly impossible to determine whether observed deviations from the expected traffic conditions occur only once, periodically or permanently. Therefore there is a need to explore the causes for the changed traffic flows, and also for evaluating the impacts of construction sites, events, or changed traffic signal control plans in a systematic manner. For tackling this task, a prototype of a traffic quality analysis tool (TQAT) is being developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It is based on a tool which came into operation for the representation of recent traffic conditions during the soccer world championship 2006 in Germany in the police department of Cologne (1). The prototype of the TQAT is set up as an application for the City of Nuremberg within the project ORINOKO

Using FCD-data for measuring route-choice probabilities

The data sampled within a large FCD-project with taxi drivers can be used to check the route-choice habits of a community of fairly well-informed people. Not surprisingly, the drivers do not always choose the fastest route, although there are changes in the route-choice under varying traffic loads. To understand, however, the motivations into more detail leading to a particular route choice appears to be far from trivial. Some experiences with this unique data set, that is publicly available, will be reported in this contribution

Autonomous Agents Controlling Traffic Lights

New kinds of detectors allow a flexible operation of traffic signals by using additional information on traffic flow. This allows the development of concepts of autonomous acting traffic lights reacting on the demand at the intersection or within the approaches. Some basic examples are described

Strategieentwicklung für ein pro-aktives Verkehrsmanagement

Das Papier stellt eine pro-aktive Vorgehensweise zur Erstellung von Strategien für die Bewältigung von geplanten und generischen Ereignisse im Straßenverkehrsnetz vor

Signal Coordination with Simple Agent-Based Rules

In todays road networks, traffic management methods are of more and more importance with steadliy increasing traffic. Detector values are related to preassigned, fixed signal programs or used to adapt the signal phases within a signal phase frame. Drebacks of these detectors are high installation costs and limitations in data usage. From a single detector information on vehicle speeds or number of vehicles waiting is not available. With the development of information technologies new kinds of detectors aloow a more flexible operation of traffic signals by using additional information on traffic flow. This allows in turn the development of concepts of autonomous actin traffic lights reacting on the demand at the intersection or within the approaches. We give an example of subsequent autonomous acting traffic lights equipped with a simple rule set optimizing the traffic flow along a road segment. The rule set is based on a cross correlation between detected vehicles in a certain distance from the traffic lights and the green time. The optimal phase shift with respect to parameters of flow, mean vehicle speed and traffic light position is discussed

Simulation of modern Traffic Lights Control Systems using the open source Traffic Simulation SUMO

Within the project “OIS” (optical information systems) new traffic control mechanisms had to be invented and tested. One of the most important topics was to optimize the flow over a junction using information from the OIS sensors which can not be measured using normal sensors such as induct loops. For this purpose, an “agentbased” traffic lights logic algorithm was used, which uses the length of a jam in front of a traffic light as input. As we had no possibility to test the traffic lights control within the reality, the improvement of the flow throughput of such junctions was shown using the open source traffic Simulation “SUMO” (Simulation of Urban MObility) [1, 2]. This publication describes the algorithm itself and how it was embedded within the simulation. Furthermore, the simulation results are given

A MULTIMODAL ROUTING SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON TRAVEL BEHAVIOR

Traffic information services provide new options to ease the individual’s access to all kinds of transport modes. This is linked to the expectation that services as they are provided by a multimodal routing system offer the possibility to influence travel behavior in a way that traffic problems can be reduced. Within the research project ORINOKO taking place in the city of Nuremberg a multimodal routing system is developed based on user requirements for such system. The article describes the developed system and the test design for the upcoming field test which analyze the impact on travel behavior. It reveals the reaction of users to multimodal routing and draws further conclusions on the potential spreading of routing systems

A MULTIMODAL ROUTING SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON TRAVEL BEHAVIOR

Traffic information services provide new options to ease the individual’s access to all kinds of transport modes. This is linked to the expectation that services as they are provided by a multimodal routing system offer the possibility to influence travel behavior in a way that traffic problems can be reduced. Within the research project ORINOKO taking place in the city of Nuremberg a multimodal routing system is developed based on user requirements for such system. The article describes the developed system and the test design for the upcoming field test which analyze the impact on travel behavior. It reveals the reaction of users to multimodal routing and draws further conclusions on the potential spreading of routing systems