Use of Bluetooth Technology on Mobile Phones for Optimal Traffic Signal Timing

Optimizing traffic signal timing is an effective and economical way to improve mobility in an urban area and reduce traffic congestion. The objective of the proposed algorithm is to enable traffic to traverse through the maximum number of downstream intersections without a stop. In this study, Bluetooth technology, to measure travel times on arterial roads, is used as input for an optimal bandwidth progression algorithm. The trajectories of vehicle platoons are tracked and decomposed into link-based samples using adaptive smoothing method, and paired with signal timing on each signalized intersection. Predicted travel time, a value representing the travel time between signalized intersections, is obtained by Support Vector Regression (SVR) model. According to bandwidth efficiency and attainability, the signal timing generated by the proposed model yields lower delays than the current signal planning. The applicability of the proposed model has been validated. Keywords-Bluetooth technology; bandwidth optimization; adaptive smoothing; support vector machine