On the Range of the Common Cycle Time in a Road Network

In a coordinated road network, the optimal common cycle time is determined by evaluating the performance of the network in the given range of cycles. Normally, this range is determined by users’ experience. And a large range of common cycle times, e.g. [30, 200] is chosen, which requires long computation time. This study considers that the optimal common cycle time ranges between the minimal and maximal value of intersections’ individual optimal cycle time. It is proved mathematically from the convexity condition, that the delay of the network and each individual intersection are convex functions of the cycle time according to Webster delay model. Finally, 2000 random cases for the network composed of two intersections and of eight intersections are created to underline the proposed conclusions. The results of all cases confirm the validity, and show up to 90% improvement in computation time to compare with experience range. The signal optimization tool, Synchro, is also used to validate the conclusion by 50 random cases. The results confirm reliability further.