2020 Theses Master's

Technologies and Urban Traffic -How New Technologies Impact a Conventional Intersection

Li, Lingyu (Simon)

Urban population swelling and the expansion of people’s need for transportation make traffic congestions an important urban deficiency faced by cities over the globe. Fortunately, emerging information technologies grant us many possible ways to improve the situation. This research built intersection traffic models in PTV Vissim platform to test the performance of Fluctuated Traffic Light technology, Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) technology, and Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) technology under both peak and bottom volumes. The results indicate that these emerging technologies have the potential to boost traffic performance. V2I method functions the best under higher traffic volumes, while V2V tested to be the best under lower traffic volumes. Take a step back, from urban planning perspective, these technologies are still in their early stages and seems far from reality, however, planners should be prepared for the challenges it may pose.