SIGNAL TIMING ON A SHOESTRING

Nowadays, traffic systems play a major role in the efficient functioning of a City's economy. Improving traffic operation will have a direct impact on economy as well as the environment. A decrease in vehicle fuel consumption and emissions will be the most positive consequence, especially in the metropolitan areas. Enhancing operation of any given roadway network is directly dependent on improving the traffic signal operations. The City of Birmingham, Alabama, is undergoing modernization of its 300 intersection traffic signal system. In conjunction with this modernization project, Birmingham recognized the need to update all of its signal timing plans as well. Like many municipal traffic departments across the nation, Birmingham is impacted by the cost of a large scale re-timing effort and as a result, must make every effort to perform this work as economically as possible. In order to identify an economical but effective approach to signal timing plan development, an investigation to choose a timing plan optimization package was undertaken. This investigation focused on ease of use and data entry, the effectiveness of the solution, the frugality of the input data requirements, labor requirements, ease of fine-tuning, the ability to manipulate patterns and scenarios, and the packages' overall suitability to the task. This paper discusses the investigation and its results.