Development and Evaluation of Coordinated Traffic Signal Emergency Preemption System

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

The objective of this research is to quantify the operational benefits of preempting an entire corridor for emergency vehicle operations, rather than preempting each individual intersection as the emergency vehicle arrives. The benefits would be derived by eliminating or minimizing the transition period when coordinated operation is interrupted, as well as decreased travel time for the emergency vehicle. A normal preemption program includes parameters that dictate the duration of green time and which movement(s) to serve after the preemption call terminates. It is anticipated that the corridor-level preemption will operate more like the initiation of an alternative (or existing) coordinated timing plan with variable green times and offsets that account for the anticipated speed of the emergency vehicle. This evaluation will be performed with a VISSIM model based on South Limestone Street in Lexington, KY. In order to best emulate real-world operations, the evaluation will utilize both software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop simulation. Traditional preemption will be evaluated using logic from Econolite ASC/3 controllers in a software-in-the-loop environment. Corridor level preemption will be evaluated using logic from the InSync adaptive control system in a hardware-in-the-loop environment. High resolution data collected from existing signal systems may also be evaluated to quantify emergency vehicle preemption performance along these corridors.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date3/1/146/30/15

Funding

  • University of Tennessee

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