Vertical and Horizontal Queue Models for Oversaturated Signal Intersections with Quasi-Real-Time Reconstruction of Deterministic and Shockwave Queueing Profiles Using Limited Mobile Sensing Data

Abstract

Deterministic/point/vertical and shockwave/physical/horizontal queueing models are widely used in traffic operation to estimate vehicular queue length and delays at bottlenecks such as signalized intersections. The consistency between the two types of queueing model in terms of their estimation performance has been a subject of debate for decades. This paper reexamines the issue, typically with respect to oversaturated signal intersections, and demonstrates the consistency based on analytical studies and microscopic simulations. While fixed-location sensor data was dominating, it was hardly possible to construct the deterministic or shockwave queueing profile using real data. For this reason, either profile had significance only at a conceptual level and could not be put into practical usage. With the quick spread of mobile sensing data, however, the situation has drastically changed. In this context, this paper also intends to develop an efficient approach to the reconstruction of the deterministic and shockwave queueing profiles in a quasi-real-time manner using very limited mobile sensing data. Microscopic simulations with AIMSUN have demonstrated the efficiency of the approach as well as the analytical results obtained in this paper.