Stochastic simulation‐based optimization method for arterial traffic signal coordination with equity and efficiency consideration

Abstract

Abstract This study proposes an innovative stochastic simulation‐based optimization (SSO) model for arterial traffic signal coordination based on the ring‐and‐barrier diagram. The SSO model takes the network traffic equity and the arterial traffic efficiency as the two objectives, which are evaluated by the relative Gini index and the relative vehicular throughout, respectively. Then a surrogate‐based promising area search (SPAS) algorithm is developed to solve the SSO model. The advantage of the SPAS algorithm is that the built‐in shrinking ball method and the promising area search technique help reduce the computational efforts while appropriately capturing the stochasticity. Then some numerical experiments are conducted based on a real‐world urban arterial road with four signalized T‐intersections and field data in Nanchang, China. The numerical results show that the SSO model for arterial traffic signal coordination can be well solved by the proposed SPAS algorithm and that the relationship between the arterial traffic efficiency and the network traffic equity is not completely competitive. Specifically, increasing the weight of arterial traffic efficiency from 0.5 can slightly improve the network traffic equity while significantly improving the arterial traffic efficiency, providing significant guidance for real‐world arterial signal coordination.