Arterial Corridor Evaluation for Florida DOT Nears Completion

August 2, 2016 in Featured, News and Events, Research, Research Highlights

UFTI Director Lily Elefteriadou and her team, with funding from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), are nearing the completion of their research in evaluating the implementation of Advanced Signal Control Technologies (ASCT) at the following arterial corridors in Florida:

  •    23rd Street Corridor, Bay County, District 3
  •    Panama City Beach Parkway, Bay County, District 3
  •    University Parkway, Sarasota and Manatee Counties, District 1
  •    US 17/92 Corridor, DeLand, District 5
  •    Glades Road, District 4
  •    Newberry Road, District 2
  •    US 17/Park Ave., District 2

But what are ASCTs? In current traditional signal controls, the time that a light spends green is determined by the system sensing vehicles and extending the time within a predefined range, which is usually based on historical data. ASCTs however are more flexible,  adjusting in real time based on current traffic conditions. These systems could potentially decrease the delays caused by traffic signals and the number of times a vehicle has to stop along a corridor. By evaluating the traffic operational quality before and after the implementation of ASCT, the UFTI team can help FDOT and other agencies determine the best locations and corridors to target for funding future ASCTs.

Currently, data collection and analysis has been completed for four of the seven study corridors. Coordination of this has been managed by Ph.D. candidate Yinan Zheng.

“This project has provided me the chance to learn more about the algorithms, methodologies and current applications of state-of-practice signal systems.” Zheng stated. “It is a very good example of connecting with the field, as we can directly experience the traffic condition changes due to ASCT installation.”

Assisting her is Ph.D. candidate Pruthvi Manjunatha, who was responsible for the data collection and analysis of the Panama City Beach corridor and conducted the project’s literature review. Together they are developing methodologies to understand the relationship between site characteristics and ASCT benefits.

“While the literature review and analysis aspects helped us gain an insight into the systems and algorithms,” Manjunatha explained, “the data collection and communication with the TMCs were useful in understanding the issues dealt at field level.”

Preliminary analysis has shown  that through multiple regressions and cluster analysis, several site characteristics (i.e.,  number of access points per mile, Average Annual Daily Traffic, and average distance between intersections) are the influencing factors that affect the corridor performance with ASCT installation.

For future applications with ASCTs in Florida and across states, the team is developing models that can be used to predict the benefits of such a system in terms of operational quality improvements given the characteristics of a site. The predictions of several key performance measures can help prioritize the ASCT installation on local arterial corridors.

“Through this project we have been able to understand the issues local agencies face when installing ASCTs, including time and cost demands required.” Dr Elefteriadou stated. “Assessing several corridors at the same time helped us understand the influence of site characteristics in realizing operational benefits as a direct result of ASCTs.”