Md Asaduzzaman
M.Sc. Candidate
Supervisor: Dr. K. Vidyasankar

A Traffic Signal Control Algorithm for Emergency Vehicles

Department of Computer Science
Thursday, March 9, 2017, 11:00 a.m., Room EN 2022

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Abstract

Signal preemption disrupts normal traffic signal to allow emergency vehicles to pass through the intersection more safely and quickly. In emergency situations, EVP (Emergency Vehicle Preemption) offers a fasterresponse to the sufferer which improves the chance of survival. Despite this lifesaving advantage, conventional preemption has some problems which need more attention. Increasing delay on overall traffic and failure to prioritize among conflicting preemption requests are two important issues to address.

This thesis presents a traffic signal control algorithm to deal with these issues. We have used TSP (Transit Signal Priority) techniques to improve the EVP system. TSP is a proven strategy to provide a better quality public transit operation in urban areas. Our proposed algorithm adjusts signal phases using TSP techniques to serve an emergency vehicle. We consider both single and multiple simultaneous emergency requests. TSP techniques help us to alleviate the impact on general traffic. For multiple emergency requests, a branch and bound algorithm is developed that prioritizes among conflicting requests. Experiments have been conducted using the VISSIM microscopic traffic simulator. Results show that the proposed traffic control algorithm reduces overall traffic delay by up to 8% compared to conventional EVP system.