Visualization and Assessment of Arterial

Progression Quality Using High Resolution

Signal Event Data and Measured Travel Time Christopher Day1, Ross Haseman1, Hiromal Premachandra1, Thomas Brennan1, Jason Wasson2,

James Sturdevant2, and Darcy Bullock1

1: Purdue University; 2: Indiana Department of Transportation

The Purdue Coordination Diagram (PCD)

Instrumented Corridor

Paper No. 10-0039

Objective

Instrument a four intersection corridor with both high resolution traffic

signal controller data loggers and probe vehicle travel time

measurement to actively manage the signalized corridor.

Noblesville, IN

b) Plot of 14 cycles over 30 minutes

Flow

Profile

Probability of

Green

Distribution

Primary

Platoon

Secondary

Platoon

a) Plotting vehicle arrivals by both time in cycle and time of day

0

30

60

90

120

150

16:00 16:05 16:10 16:15 16:20 16:25 16:30

Time of Day

Tim

e in

Cy

cle

Beginning of Cycle

Beginning of Green

End of Green

End of Cycle

315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329Cycle Number

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

c) Twenty four hour PCD & percent on green plots

The PCD is an extension of the platoon profile diagram developed in

the 1960’s, but with an added time of day dimension to visualize time

varying characteristics of traffic.

Tim

e in

Cyc

le

0

30

60

90

120

150

16:00 16:05 16:10 16:15 16:20 16:25 16:30

Time of Day

Tim

e in

Cy

cle

Time of Day

Beginning

of Cycle

Beginning

of Green

End of

Green

End of

Cycle

Cycle 315

Stop Bar

Advance

Detector

Dis

tan

ce

Time of Day

Be

gin

nin

g

of C

ycle

Be

gin

nin

g

of G

ree

n

En

d o

f

Gre

en

En

d o

f

Cycle

Red Interval Green Interval

% on Green

= 62%

BOG

EOG

MB05

External Antenna

Case

MB04

External Antenna

Case

MB03

External Antenna

Case

MB02

External Antenna

Case

INT 1001,

SR-32External Antenna

Traffic Cabinet

INT 1002,

Pleasant St

External Antenna

Traffic Cabinet

INT 1003, Town

& Country Blvd

Traffic Cabinet

External Antenna

INT 1004, Greenfield AveExternal Antenna

Traffic Cabinet

EconoliteASC/3

Ethernet Switch

BluetoothData Logger

High Resolution Traffic Signal Controller Event Data

• Signal heads change

• Pedestrian indications change

• Vehicles travel past detectors

0.1

sec

0.1 sec

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

6/15 6/16 6/17 6/18 6/19 6/20 6/21 6/22 6/23 6/24 6/25 6/26 6/27 6/28 6/29

Me

as

ure

d T

rave

l Tim

e (m

in)

Date/Time

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Long Saturday travel

times compared to rest of week

Long Saturday travel

times compared to rest of week

Recorded Travel Time Through Corridor

Before and After Adjustments

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

7/13 7/14 7/15 7/16 7/17 7/18 7/19 7/20 7/21 7/22 7/23 7/24 7/25 7/26 7/27

Me

as

ure

d T

rave

l Tim

e (m

in)

Date/Time

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Saturday travel times

comparable to rest of week

Saturday travel times

comparable to rest of week

Northbound Travel Time Before

(Sample Size = 4797)

Northbound Travel Time After

(Sample Size = 5401)

Tracking Travel Time Through Bluetooth MAC Addresses

Bluetooth is a wireless protocol used by many small devices including cell phones

and laptops. Every transceiver has a unique 48-bit Media Access Control (MAC)

Address. These MAC addresses can be matched in the same manner as license

plate surveys.

Blackberrry 8310

MAC Address

Portable

Bluetooth Data

Collector

Bluetooth Devices

Cabinet (Node) Mounted

Bluetooth ReadersMidblock (Link) Mounted

Bluetooth Readers

MB01

External Antenna

Case

Cycle 315

Advance Detector

East 146th St.

Pleasant St.

Town &

Country Blvd.

SR-32

Time

Stamp

Event Parameter Description

05:34:27.8 3 4 Phase 4 Red

05:34:27.8 3 8 Phase 8 Red

05:34:27.8 9 9 Channel 9 Detector On

05:34:27.8 9 26 Channel 26 Detector On

05:34:28.6 9 11 Channel 11 Detector On

05:34:28.7 8 11 Channel 11 Detector Off

05:34:30.3 1 2 Phase 2 Green

05:34:30.3 0 4 Phase 4 Off

05:34:30.3 1 6 Phase 6 Green

05:34:30.3 0 8 Phase 8 Off

05:34:32.2 8 26 Channel 26 Detector Off

05:34:32.5 9 26 Channel 26 Detector On

05:34:33.7 8 26 Channel 26 Detector Off

05:34:34.2 9 26 Channel 26 Detector On

TT from

MB05 to MB04

Visualization and Assessment of Arterial

Progression Quality Using High Resolution Signal

Event Data and Measured Travel Time

PCD June 6th (Before) PCD June 6th (Predicted) PCD July 25th (After) Travel Time CFD PCD June 6th (Before) PCD June 6th (Predicted) PCD July 25th (After) Travel Time CFD

Int. 1002

Pleasant

Int. 1003

Town &

Country

Int. 1004

Greenfield

June 20th vs July 25th June 20th vs July 25th

TT from

MB04 to MB03

TT from

MB03 to MB02

TT from

MB02 to MB01

TT from

MB04 to MB05

TT from

MB02 to MB03

TT from

MB03 to MB04

TT from

MB01 to MB02

POG = 38.2% POG = 38.2% POG = 38.4%

POG = 52.6% POG = 59.8% POG = 59.9%

POG = 79.6% POG = 70.4% POG = 72.0%

POG = 61.0% POG = 65.1% POG = 68.0%

POG = 57.8% POG = 45.9% POG = 53.1%

POG = 39.5% POG = 63.6% POG = 73.3%

POG = 79.6% POG = 77.1% POG = 79.5%

POG = 35.8% POG = 65.7% POG = 69.6%

Adjusting Intersection Cycle Offsets with PCDs

Int. 1001

SR-32

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

Nort

hbound T

ravel T

ime

Midblock Bluetooth Sensors Intersection Bluetooth Sensors

South

bound T

ravel T

ime

TT from

MB01 to MB05

Median travel time

decreased by 1.90 minutes

with a t-stat of -5.86

TT from

MB05 to MB01

Median travel time

decreased by 0.42 minutes

with a t-stat of 0.14

TT from

I01 to I04

Median travel time

increased by 0.07 minutes

with a t-stat of -0.724

TT from

I04 to I01

Median travel time

decreased by 1.10 minutes

with a t-stat of -3.645

Travel Time Through Corridor Before and AfterKey Concepts

POG = 38.2%

BOG

EOG

POG = 35.8%

BOG

EOG

BOG

EOG

Random Arrivals

Poor Coordination

Very Good Coordination

Clipped Platoons

POG = 72.0%

BOG

EOG

POG = 79.6%R G

P C

1. Vehicle data showed a clear travel time

problem on Saturdays

Conclusions

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

6/15 6/16 6/17 6/18 6/19 6/20 6/21 6/22 6/23 6/24 6/25 6/26 6/27 6/28 6/29

Me

as

ure

d T

rave

l Tim

e (m

in)

Date/Time

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Long Saturday travel

times compared to rest of week

Long Saturday travel

times compared to rest of week

R R

G C

GP

GP

Intersection Offset Before (sec) Offset After (sec)

1001 0 0

1002 62 44

1003 74 34

1004 29 89

2. The high resolution controller data was

leveraged to create PCDs to identify

problem intersections

3. The PCDs were used to estimate offset

adjustments to address the problems

4. The probe vehicle data was used to

assess the outcome of the new timings

5. Although midblock travel time instrumentation is the most desirable, the intersection

based instrumentation is more practical for long term deployments due to availability

of power and communication.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

7/13 7/14 7/15 7/16 7/17 7/18 7/19 7/20 7/21 7/22 7/23 7/24 7/25 7/26 7/27

Me

as

ure

d T

rave

l Tim

e (m

in)

Date/Time

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Saturday travel times

comparable to rest of week

Saturday travel times

comparable to rest of week

GC