Traffic Control

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Traffic Control Screen

Pressing the 'Traffic Control' button on the toolbar will load the following screen.



Pressing the 'Add Pretimed Controller' or 'Add Actuated Signal Controller' will add a signal controller entry to the table immediately below the button. Pressing the 'Edit' button for a given controller under the 'Edit Timing Plan' column will load the signal timing and phasing inputs screen (discussed below). After a signal timing plan has been specified, control points and/or detectors can be associated with the various phases included in the timing plan. A summary of those associations is shown in the table in the lower left portion of the screen. The contents of this table reflect the signal controller selected in the table above it. Note that accommodation of Unsignalized Intersection and ramp signal controllers is currently in progress.



Pretimed Signal Phasing and Timing Inputs Pressing the ‘Set Phasing & Timing’ button on the main inputs screen will load the ‘Signal Phasing and Timing Inputs' screen (see Figure below).



To add a timing stage, press the “Add Timing Stage” button. This will highlight the next available Timing Stage box in yellow. To edit a Timing Stage, click the desired stage so that it is highlighted in yellow. Timing stages are used to specify the phases (1-8) that will move (i.e., receive green) simultaneously. To add a traffic movement to the timing stage, click on the desired movement arrow(s) in the ring/barrier diagram. To remove a movement, click on the corresponding arrow in the ring/barrier diagram. If movement is selected that conflicts with another movement in that timing stage, an error message will appear and the movement arrow will not be added to the timing stage. For each timing stage, the green, yellow, and all-red times need to be specified. To edit a timing interval, click on the appropriate table cell to highlight it in blue and type in the desired number. Press the ‘Tab’ or ‘Enter’ key to save edits. Note that the number in the left-most column corresponds to the timing stage number. The figure below shows an example timing stage plan.



When the timing stage movements and corresponding interval times have been specified, the last step is to select ‘Create Signal Controller Phasing/Timing Plan’. This will generate a timing plan that is used by the dual-ring signal controller (see Figure below).



If revisions are made to the timing stages and/or interval times, press the ‘Create Signal Controller Phasing/Timing Plan’ again to create a new signal controller timing plan. The last timing plan that is generated is the one that is stored in memory. The simulation program will continue to store this timing plan in memory for the duration of the current session. If you want to save the timing plan to disk, press the “Save To File” button. With this, the timing plan can be reopened in a different program session.

Actuated Signal Control

After adding an actuated signal controller, press 'Edit' under 'Edit Timing Plan' to open the Timing Plan Data window.



Use the 'Add Phase' and 'Remove Phase' buttons to add and remove phases to the table on the right. To edit a phase, click on the desired cell so that it is highlighted blue, type the Phase Number (1 through 8) and press tab to move to the next cell. All cells except for Recall Mode should be numerical inputs and then use the drop down menu to assign a recall mode for each phase. For more information on signal timing, see Basic Signal Timings.



Once the phases are created in the table, then click on 'Edit Phase Sequence' to set phases to corresponding rings. Use the 'Number of Rings' drop down menu to select the number of rings to be used in the intersection. Then, in a similar manner in the Timing Plan Data window, use the 'Add New Row' and 'Remove Current Row' buttons to create a table for ring information. For the typical two ring, eight ring timing plan, insert six rows and using the drop down menu, select 'Barrier' for rows three and six.





Once the Phase Sequence Input table is complete, press 'Close and Save Changes'.

Actuated Signal Controller File Setup