Lane-based optimization of traffic equilibrium settings for area traffic control

Area traffic control is an important element in Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). This paper extends the lane-based optimization method to a traffic equilibrium network, which improves the operational performance of signal-controlled network. We formulate a decomposition approach to simultaneously optimize the lane markings and signal settings for a signal-controlled network that comprises two levels of optimization. At the junction level, the lane markings, control sequence, and other aspects of the signal settings are optimized for individual junctions, whereas at the network level, the group-based signal settings are optimized to take into account the re-routing characteristics of travelers and signal coordination effects that are based on a TRANSYT traffic model, which is a well-known procedure for evaluating the performance of signal-controlled networks. We use a numerical example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons Ltd