Title: Real-time traffic flow-based traffic signal scheduling: a queuing theory approach

Authors: Gatera Antoine; Chomora Mikeka; Gaurav Bajpai; Andras Valko

Addresses: African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things, College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda ' Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Education, Lilongwe P/Bag 328, Malawi ' Department of Computer and Software Engineering, College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda ' African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things, College of Science and Technology, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda

Abstract: The lack of hierarchical road intersection management is a common scenario in low to middle-income countries. The increase in the number of vehicles leads to congestion at the road intersections, resulting in travellers delay. This paper proposes a novel multi-server queuing model for traffic signal optimisation to strengthen the sustainability of urban mobility. Given the arrival rate of cars on each road of the intersection, the queue information of every pattern movement is processed. The queuing theory concepts are applied to the collected data. The proposed performance metrics arrival rate, waiting time, an average number of cars in the queue, intersection utilisation is analysed and evaluated using ground truth data. The numerical results are graphically interpreted and show that the proposed queuing model approach reduces the delay by increasing the intersection throughput. This allows smoother traffic flow with less congestion for the users of the Giporoso intersection in Kigali.

Keywords: queuing model; road network; traffic congestion; green light cycle; traffic flow; intersection management; intersection throughput.

DOI: 10.1504/WRITR.2021.119522

World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, 2021 Vol.10 No.4, pp.325 - 343

Received: 04 Sep 2020
Accepted: 29 Jun 2021

Published online: 08 Dec 2021 *

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