Characteristics of High-Resolution Queue Discharge and the Effect on Signal Timing

Abstract

It is asserted that minimum green time, passage time, and detection parameters must be considered jointly with traffic flow characteristics from the queue discharge process if efficient signalized intersection operation is to result. Data are presented from the new high-resolution traffic flow data sets produced through the Federal Highway Administration's Next Generation Simulation Model (NGSIM) project to show a fundamentally new way of looking at the queue discharge process. The characteristics of this process are related to a time–distance domain map showing the basic timing parameters and detection zone length. A new way of computing passage time is suggested, based on actual travel speeds through the detection zone area and a clearer relationship between passage time, minimum green time, and detection zone length.