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