The Impact of Increasing Minor Arterial Flow on Arterial Coordination: An Analysis Based on MAXBAND Model

Abstract

With the progress of urbanization, car ownership is experiencing explosive growth in China, which leads to heavy pressure on the urban road network. Arterial coordination strategy has been proved an effective method to avoid or alleviate traffic congestion. However, with the increasing proportion of flow on the minor arterial, arterial coordination efficiency might be affected. To figure out the problem, a numerical test is conducted by designing eight scenarios with different proportion of through movement and left turn flow on the minor arterials. MAXBAND model is applied for optimizing signal plans. The results show that average delay for vehicles on the arterials increases with the increasing of proportion of through movement flow, as well as the entire average delay. Average delay for vehicles on the minor arterials and two-way bandwidth decreases at same time. In other words, when the proportion of minor arterial flow increases, the arterial coordination efficiency would be reduced, especially for increasing left turn flow. This work reveals the improvement direction for arterial coordination.