Implementation of Absolute Priority in a Predictive Traffic Actuation Schemes

Abstract

Nowadays, the improvement of the emergency vehicles' priority is required to improve their response time. Presently, the emergency vehicles alert the road users using the sirens and lights, which might cause disturbances in the traffic or lead to accidents due to the unpredictability of the road users' behaviors. This paper introduces the priority indicator, which calculates the priority of several emergency vehicles as they approach an intersection and sort them in a way that allows granting priority to each one without causing delays neither for the emergency nor for the normal vehicles. The priority indicator is then introduced in a predictive traffic actuation program (DIRECTOR) that adjusts the signal timing in a dynamic way. Thus, this research aims to create a generalized priority form that simplifies granting the priority for emergency vehicles in a harmonized way in all over the Netherlands, making sure that it takes into consideration the several conditions of the intersection.