Economic adaptive traffic signal system: design and operation

Due to budget limitation, the signalized intersections might be operated in fixed-time system, thus resulting in a low-performance operation. This paper attempts to introduce an economic adaptive traffic signal system that depends mainly on three simple techniques. The real-time delays are estimated using Google Maps. Accordingly, the timing plan is updated resulting in changing traffic light indication through a simple wireless communication module. Moreover, the timing plans would be displayed on two webpages: one to help in traffic surveillance and control and the other to help in selecting the best routes. The impact of the proposed system has been examined through a signalized intersection in Egypt using a microsimulation model. The results showed that the proposed system could decrease the traffic delays by 24%, compared to the fixed-time system. Future work is intended to thoroughly study the security perspectives and to validate the whole proposed system on real intersections.