Pedestrian Phase Pattern Investigation in a Traffic Light Scheduling Problem for Signalized Network

This paper presents a traffic signal scheduling strategy for a pedestrian-vehicle mixed-flow network with consideration of the pedestrian two-way crossing phase (TWC) and the exclusive pedestrian phase (EPP) in the urban traffic system. According to the pedestrian crossing characteristics, two volume dynamics are firstly proposed for the TWC phase setting and EPP phase setting, respectively. Secondly, a mathematical model combining both the vehicle traffic network and the pedestrian flows at each intersection is developed, with the aim to minimize the delay cost from two different traffic participants (pedestrians and vehicles) and to provide suggestions on selecting EPP or TWC phase pattern. Numerical simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of our real-time traffic light scheduling strategy and the potential impact of two phase patterns when different traffic volumes are involved in the system.