Active bus priority in SCOOT

Active bus priority at traffic signals controlled by traffic-responsive Urban Traffic Control (UTC) systems is being developed within the DRIVE II project PROMPT. This paper describes the development of a version of SCOOT, which is to be tested in field trials in London and Southampton. The new version of SCOOT is designed to take information about the presence of buses either from a selective vehicle detector with a transponder fitted to each bus, as in London, or from an automatic vehicle location system as in Southampton. In London, SCOOT will provide both central and local control of bus priority, and in Southampton all bus priority will be provided centrally. The SCOOT kernel software has been developed to incorporate bus priority, and simulation results to date suggest that bus priority in a coordinated network controlled by SCOOT is practicable