Traffic Light Timing Control via Discharge Speed Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traffic congestion in urban areas is exacerbated by traffic overflow, where queues of vehicles accumulate and spill over to adjacent intersections, leading to gridlocks, and existing systems struggle to effectively manage this issue.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for controlling traffic lights that includes a processing engine to determine signal timing based on vehicle track data, calculating discharge speed and offset values to adjust the timing of upstream and downstream traffic lights, preventing queue spillover by ensuring the discharge wave reaches the upstream stop line during the green light duration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traffic light timing is adjusted to discharge queues faster, then queue length at downstream intersection is reduced, but queue spillover to upstream intersection may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system calculates the spillover risk in advance before adjusting traffic light timing. By determining the discharge speed and spillover risk level beforehand, the system can pre-adjust the upstream intersection's green light duration or delay its timing to prevent queue spillover before it occurs, rather than reacting after spillover has happened.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors queue lengths at both upstream and downstream intersections, calculates discharge speeds based on historical track data, and adjusts traffic light timing dynamically. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures that timing adjustments are made based on real-time conditions, preventing both excessive queue discharge that causes spillover and insufficient discharge that maintains congestion.
2Productivity
If traffic light timing is optimized for one intersection, then traffic flow at that intersection improves, but adjacent intersections may experience increased congestion
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the control of multiple adjacent intersections into a coordinated timing system. By calculating discharge speeds and spillover risks for both upstream and downstream intersections simultaneously, and adjusting their traffic light timing in a coordinated manner, the system optimizes traffic flow across the entire corridor rather than treating each intersection independently, thereby preventing congestion transfer between adjacent intersections.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for controlling traffic lights is provided. The method may include obtaining historical track data of a plurality of vehicles (902), obtaining a congestion period (904), determining a discharge speed during the congestion period based on a portion of the historical track data corresponding to the congestion period (906), determining an offset value based on a length of the road, the discharge speed, a cycle length of a first traffic light at the downstream intersection, a cycle length of a second traffic light at the upstream intersection, and a time length of a green light of the second traffic light being lit (908), and determining a signal timing of the second traffic light based on the offset value (910).