MODELLING MIXED AUTO/TRANSIT OPERATION FOR TRAFFIC SIGNAL OPTIMIZATION . PROCEEDINGS OF THE 1989 ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE ROADS AND TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION OF CANADA, CALGARY, ALBERTA, SEPTEMBER 17-21, 1989

The well know model TRANSYT for optimizing traffic signal settings claims to consider transit vehicles such as buses and their high passenger occupancy. While it does achieve a sort of compromise that allows the user to select weights for the transit vehicles relative to the low occupancy private vehicle, its representation of certain mixed traffic situations is over simplified and therefore leads to incorrect modelling and an unreliable solution. A modelling technique has been developed for the TRANSYT model to account for the real traffic interaction between transit and private vehicle traffic. This technique inserts dummy traffic signals to represent the effects of transit vehicles holding up private vehicles while loading and unloading passengers at transit stops. This paper summarizes the alternative modelling procedure and illustrates its application to modelling the mixed automobile and streetcar operation in the Queen Street corridor in Toronto. (Author/TRRL )