Thursday, September 09, 2004

Optimising traffic signal switchover times

Across Bangalore, switchover times for traffic signals now hover around the 75-120 seconds range. Meaning, if you hit the red signal, you might have to wait up to 2 minutes for the signal to turn green. At many intersections, the problem as I have noted is, because of the long switchover time for signals, traffic piles up rapidly and begins to block the previous intersection. When there is a capacity constraint with regard to the volume of traffic that can build up on the road in anticipation of a green signal, is it not better to to have quicker switchover time. Of course, there is a small overhead in terms of the changeover time but that is minute compared to the chaos that is caused when traffic builds up due to long wait times. It would be more optimal to allow shorter pass through times and have more frequent signal changeovers wherever the road does not have the capacity to hold traffic of a high volume. of course, in cases where 6 roads meet at an intersection, even a 15 second pass through would mean 75 second wait times. But atleast at intersections where only 2-4 roads intersect, this scheme can be implemented.

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