Dwelling and Speed Advisory Enhanced Max-Pressure Control With Transit Signal Priority

Abstract

Max-Pressure (MP) control is a decentralized real-time traffic signal control method that is popular for its simplicity and theoretical stability. However, most existing MP controllers prioritize throughput for private vehicles without accounting for the specific needs of transit services that are essential for sustainable urban mobility. This oversight can exacerbate transit delays and undermine the effectiveness of public transportation systems. To address these challenges, this study introduces a Priority-MP framework that integrates transit signal priority and driver advisory systems into MP control for multi-modal traffic networks. By weighting pressures based on real-time vehicle occupancy and considering more realistic scenarios that account for the presence of transit stations, Priority-MP prioritizes high-occupancy transit vehicles while ensuring network queue stability. In addition, the framework integrates driver advisory systems to provide speed and dwell time recommendations for transit vehicles. Experiments on a real-world multi-modal traffic corridor in Amsterdam show that compared to existing MP control methods: 1) Priority-MP highlights an important trade-off: it significantly reduces average passenger delay by prioritizing high-occupancy transit vehicles, even though this may lead to increased average vehicle delay when the impact of transit stations are ignored; 2) Priority-MP considering transit stations reduces both vehicle delay and passenger delay while maintaining the network stability; and 3) Priority-MP integrating driver advisory systems further improves the travel smoothness of transit vehicles by reducing transit queuing counts.