CIVL2700/9700

Transport Systems
Topic 10: Traffic Signal Timing Design and Analysis

Andres Fielbaum

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Recap from last week
• We learnt in general the types of intersection controls.
• Pros and cons of roundabouts, stop, and give way.
• Actuated vs Fixed traffic lights.
• The yellow zone dilemma.

This week: Every aspect of traffic light design.

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Agenda
• Phase Construction
• Pre-timed Control Characteristics
• Saturation Flow and Capacity
• Lane Groups
• Critical Lane Groups
o Sum of Flow Ratios and Total Lost Time
• Cycle Length
o Minimum and Optimum cycle lengths
• Allocate Green Times
• Signal Coordination
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Phase Construction – Two or Three Phases

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Phase Construction – Four or Five Phases

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 Example 1 - Phase Construction
Given the intersection shown below, use the cross-product guideline to determine if
protected left-turn phases should be provided for any of the approaches. And propose a
phase sequence. Note that the intersection is in a right-hand driving country.

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 Reminder – Permitted vs Protected Turns
• Permitted vs. Protected Right Turn (Left Turns in the US)
• Right turn protected phase should be considered if any of the
following criteria is met: (HCM)
1. More than one turning lane is provided
2. The right turn demand is over 240 veh/h
3. The product of right turn demand and opposing through and left
turn demand for 1 hour exceeds 50,000 for one opposing lane,
90,000 for two opposing lanes, or 110,000 for three or more

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 Example 2 – Yellow and All-Red Times
Given the intersection shown below, determine the yellow and all-red times for vehicles
traveling on Vine and Maple Streets. Assume they are flat.
Note that the intersection is in a right-hand driving country.

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 Reminder – Yellow and All-Red Calculations
• Yellow Time (ITE): • Note that both the yellow and
all-red times are usually
rounded up to the nearest 0.5
second.

• All-red Time (ITE):

(m)
(6m)

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 Designing Traffic Lights – Green and Intergreen
• One cycle of a traffic light can be seen as the sum of the Green time and the
Intergreen time for each phase. Intergreen = Yellow + All red.
C

(Clearance time)
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 What happens when the signals turn green?
• When green starts, the flow of vehicles across the stop
line increases rapidly as the vehicles accelerate until a
saturation flow (s) is reached.

• The flow of vehicles then remains constant at the

saturation flow rate until either the queue is depleted
or the green period ends.

• When green ends, the flow rate of vehicles decreases

to zero with some vehicles immediately stopping and
some continuing in the yellow period.

• The sum of the bars over the saturation headway is the

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start loss.
 Effective and displayed green
• The observable cycle is defined by the colours displayed by the traffic light.

• However, the resulting flows do not correspond perfectly with those colours:
o Start losses.
o What happens with the yellow?

We define the Effective green time g as the time in which the vehicles of the
corresponding phase are actually moving.

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 Displayed and Effective Green Time
g = G + end gain - start loss
G: displayed green time
g: effective green time

𝑎𝑎 + 𝑔𝑔 = 𝐼𝐼 + 𝐺𝐺 + 𝑏𝑏
a'
𝑔𝑔 = 𝐺𝐺 + 𝐼𝐼 + 𝑏𝑏 − 𝑎𝑎
We define ℓ = 𝑎𝑎 − 𝑏𝑏

C=
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 Other Traffic Light Variables
• Intergreen time 𝐼𝐼 is the time between one green ends and the next one starts, i.e., yellow
+ all red.
• Displayed green time (G) is the green time period that is presented for a phase
• Effective green time (g) is the time over which the saturation flow is assumed to occur
• Start loss (a’) is the time between the green being displayed and start of effective green
• End gain (b) is the time between the end if the displayed green signal and the saturation
flow finishing
• Displayed red time (R) is the red time period that is presented for a phase
• The effective red time (r) is the time during which a traffic movement is not effectively
utilizing the intersection.
r=R+ℓ
C= g+r
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 Saturation Flow and Capacity
𝑔𝑔𝑖𝑖
𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 = 𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑖 ×
𝐶𝐶
𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 : movement i capacity per cycle
gi: effective green time
si: movement i saturation flow
C: cycle time

Saturation Flow depends on:

• Lane type Higher for straight through than turning lanes
• Lane width Greater width, greater saturation flow
• Environment Higher saturation flows with good visibility, no pedestrians, little parking
• Traffic composition Sat. flow reduces with increasing % heavy vehicles
• Gradient Uphill lowers saturation flow, downhill increases
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 Saturation Flow and Capacity
𝑔𝑔𝑖𝑖
𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 = 𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑖 ×
𝐶𝐶
𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 : movement i capacity per cycle
gi: effective green time
si: movement i saturation flow
C: cycle time

Capacity results as the product of:

• Saturation flow, i.e., the maximum flow of the lane if the light was always green.
• The percentage of time that the light is effectively green.

Hence, the capacity 𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 represents the maximum flow of the lane given the allocation of
green times.
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 Establish Analysis Lane Groups
The methodology for signalized intersections assumes individual intersection approaches
and individual lane groups within approaches.

How to group the lanes?

In general, the smallest number of lane groups is used that adequately describes the
operation of the intersection.

Lane groups:
1. Movements from the same lane as one lane group
2. Exclusive turn lane(s) treated as separate lane group.
3. Judgment for shared movement lane(s)

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Establish Analysis Lane Groups

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Determine Sum of Flow Ratios and Total Lost Time
• During a particular phase, one of the lane groups control the necessary green time for
that phase. That is the critical lane group.
• To find it we define the v/s ratio as the quotient between vehicle arrival rate and
saturation flow (like 𝜌𝜌 from queueing theory!)
• The critical lane group is simply the lane group with the highest v/s ratio.

Two relevant quantities:

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 THINK-PAIR-SHARE

What happens if 𝑌𝑌𝐶𝐶 ≥ 1?

R: Each term in the sum represents the minimum percentage of the cycle required by each phase. So if it
sums more than 1, one of the critical lanes will end up with a capacity lower than its inflow (i.e., a queue
with departure rate lower than arrival rate!).

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Total Lost Time and Total Delay
• The time lost at every phase will be
in general similar.

• This implies that having

a large number of phases can make the whole cycle less efficient.

• The time lost per cycle is independent of the cycle length. Hence, the shorter the
cycle, the greater the losses.

• But the longer the cycle…

The longer the accumulated queues and delay!

Total cycle time needs to be able to face this trade-off. We’ll come back to this in a few
slides. CIVL2700: Transport Systems - Week 10 21
 Example 3 – Lane Groups
Given the intersection shown below, determine the lane groups.
Note that the intersection is in a right-hand driving country.

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 Example 4 – Sum of Flows and Lost Time
Given the intersection shown below, calculate the sum of the flow ratios and total lost time for the critical lane
groups for the three-phase timing plan. Assume 2 seconds start-up lost time and 2 seconds of clearance lost
time for each critical group. Note that the intersection is in a right-hand driving country.

Saturation flow rates:

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 Calculate Cycle Length (minimum)
• In practice, cycle lengths are generally kept as short as possible, typically between 60 and 75
seconds.
• However, complex intersections with five or more phases can have cycle lengths of 120
seconds or more.

We denote by C the cycle time. To avoid spill-overs, we need the capacity of each phase to be
greater or equal than the vehicles’ inflow.
𝑔𝑔
In the extreme case, 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 = 𝑐𝑐𝑖𝑖 ⇒ 𝑣𝑣𝑖𝑖 = 𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑖 × 𝑖𝑖 . On the other hand, 𝐶𝐶 = 𝐿𝐿 + ∑𝑖𝑖 𝑔𝑔𝑖𝑖 . Hence
𝐶𝐶

𝑣𝑣
𝐿𝐿 + ∑𝐶𝐶 ⋅ = 𝐶𝐶
𝑠𝑠 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐

𝑣𝑣
This assumes that there is no randomness. In practice, it is safer to expect that ∑ can be
𝑠𝑠 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐
1 𝑣𝑣
greater, so we use 𝐿𝐿 + 𝐶𝐶∑ ⋅ = 𝐶𝐶 for some 𝑋𝑋𝐶𝐶 ≤ 1. 24
𝑋𝑋𝐶𝐶 𝑠𝑠 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐
Calculate Cycle Length (minimum)

Usually given to us or should be selected between 0.85 and 1

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 Calculate Cycle Length (optimum)
• A practical equation for the cycle length that seeks to minimize vehicle delay
developed by Webster:

Think – Pair – Share: Why does optimal time increase with the total time lost?

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 Example 5 – Minimum and Optimal Cycle Lengths
Given the intersection shown below, calculate the minimum and optimal cycle lengths for
the intersection of Maple and Vine Streets. Use 𝑋𝑋𝐶𝐶 =0.9.
Note that the intersection is in a right-hand driving country.

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Why EB L and SB L have significantly different saturation flows?
 Allocate Green Times
• How much green time should be allocated to each phase?

• The total effective green time is given by 𝑔𝑔 = 𝐶𝐶 − 𝐿𝐿. How to distribute g?

• Traditional method: So that the v/c ratios are equalized for the critical lane groups.

C=

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Allocate Green Times – Method 1
Such that

Note that if the minimum cycle time is

used, this Xc can also be obtained using
the equation from slide 30.

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 Example 6 – Allocate Green Times – Method 1
Given the intersection shown below and assuming optimal cycle time, determine the green-time
allocations. Note that the intersection is in a right-hand driving country.

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 Allocate Green Times – Simpler expression

𝑣𝑣
Note that 𝑔𝑔𝑖𝑖 is just proportional to ( 𝑖𝑖 ). So a simpler expression is
𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑖
𝑉𝑉𝑖𝑖
�𝑆𝑆
𝑖𝑖
𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸 𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑖𝑖 = × (𝐶𝐶 − 𝐿𝐿)
𝑉𝑉𝑗𝑗
∑ �𝑆𝑆
𝑗𝑗

The phases whose inflow is closer to saturation flow will receive more effective green
time.

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 Example 7 – Accounting for Pedestrians
Given the intersection shown below, determine the minimum amount of pedestrian
green time required. Assume a maximum of 15 pedestrians crossing either street during
any one phase and a crosswalk width of 2.4 m.
Note that the intersection is in a right-hand driving country.

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Reminder - Pedestrian Requirements
3.05

0.82 3.05

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 Signal Coordination
• The term signal coordination generally refers to the level of timing coordination, or
synchronization, between adjacent and closely spaced signals on the roadway.

• Ideally, traffic signals should be timed so that as many vehicles as possible arrive at the
signalized intersection when the signal indication is green

• The time difference between the start of the green between corresponding phases at
adjacent signalized intersections is referred to as the offset.

• Coordinating signal timing between adjacent intersections for good progression in only
one direction is very straightforward. However, for an arterial with traffic in both
directions, the setting of the offset for ideal progression in one direction may lead to poor
progression in the other direction.
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