A real-time local signal control methodology for alleviating incident-induced traffic congestion on arterials

This paper presents a real-time local signal control method which serves to alleviate incident-induced traffic congestion on the roadway between two adjacent intersections. The proposed approach includes two major parts: (1) a discrete-time non-linear stochastic model which denotes the time-varying relationships of lane traffic state variables and control variables under conditions of lane-blocking incidents, and (2) a real-time control algorithm for dynamically predicting control variables. To generate efficiently traffic data used in model tests, we employed the Paramics microscopic traffic simulator, which is developed to model and analyze ITS traffic flow conditions. The preliminary test results indicate the superiority of the proposed real-time signal control method in comparison with fixed-time signal control modes which are presently used at the study site. It is expected that this study can stimulate research on incident management, and extend to network-wide incident responsive traffic control for the development of advanced traffic management systems (ATMS).