Intelligent Road Transport System, using

relay data in a network of traffic signals in

Indian conditions
1.

Eadala Satish Reddy, M.tech (Computer Science Engineering), Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
Hyderabad, Telangana.

2.

Eadala Rakesh Reddy, Post Graduate Student, Dept of Civil Engg, Veer Surendra Sai University of
Technology, Burla, Odisha.

Abstract: The Urban cities are characterized with a network of traffic junctions of which there
are certain junctions that carry a majority of the traffic across a set relay of traffic junctions,
which can transmit information on the traffic density approaching from one signal to the next
which can help modify the signal timing in the required direction in real time to avoid congestion
to the maximum extent.
1.0 Introduction: Rapidly developing cities face traffic congestion of unprecedented scale due
to the rapid urbanization which has to be dealt with as a part of policy initiatives paired with
technological support. As per the 2011 Indian census, Indias urban population has grown from
290 million in 2001 to 377 million accounting for nearly one third of Indias population. The
number of personal vehicles in the Indian cities have increased many fold (table 1), with which
the urban road network has not been able to keep up with which needs different approaches to
reduce the transit time across the cities apart from just expanding the existing roads.
Indian Vehicle Composition
End of
March each
year

2
wheeler
s

4
wheelers

Buses

Goods
Vehicles

Other
Vehicles

Total
(Millions)

Percentage of Total Vehicle population

1951

8.8

52.0

11.1

26.8

1.3

0.3

1961

13.2

46.6

8.6

25.3

6.3

0.6

1971

30.9

36.6

5.0

18.4

9.1

1.8

1981

48.6

21.5

3.0

10.3

16.6

5.4

1991

66.4

13.8

1.5

6.3

11.9

21.4

2001

70.1

12.8

1.2

5.4

10.5

55.0

2011

71.8

13.6

1.1

5.0

8.5

141.8

Table 1 Source: Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (2012)

2.1 Methods generally employed to free congestion on Urban roads

1) Intelligent transport systems
2) Road expansion on artery roads
3) Providing and planning for alternative routes
4) Planning new establishments to lesser congested areas

2.2 Advantages of the proposed system over existing system

The current system either has to be set for timings manually or is released based on the current
traffic at the signal. The proposed system takes into account the traffic congestion at the current
signal along with data relayed from the previous feeder signal to make sure that the entire
network on artery roads are connected to each other to make traffic flow easier through
information on the incoming traffic to decide the time to be given to each direction.
This data can also be used to understand the congested routes and suggest alternative routes to
incoming traffic before entering already congested routes.

3.0 Intelligent transport systems

Intelligent transport systems are advanced applications which, without embodying intelligence as
such, aim to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic
management and enable various users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated,
and 'smarter' use of transport networks.
This paper plans to explain an innovative traffic junction network system, to help reduce traffic
congestion by changing the traffic signal timings in real time and detecting plausible areas of
congestion, and diverting traffic in real time before they reach the bottle neck.
The following would be the data utilized for the ITS based traffic signals.
(i)

Time taken to reach the threshold at a distance of 30 to 50 meters from the signal (6
to 10 vehicles per lane)

(ii)

Data relayed from junctions leading to current signal on number of vehicles that have
passed it during the previous run.

The combined data from the above mentioned sources, is used to determine the time to be
assigned as green for the signal during the current cycle.
3.1 Process to be followed to determine time for a signal to stay green

Step 1 The current signal time is built on a counter C starting at 5 and decreasing by 1 for every
5 seconds the traffic takes to reach the threshold distance.
Step 2 This value of C is multiplied by 2 to give a value P1
Step 3 The counter value of C is also collected from the previous signal and added to P1 to
provide the final value of P1 for the current cycle which when multiplied with 10 would provide
the number of seconds the signal should remain green.
The above steps are used to determine the number of seconds a signal has to be turned green.

3.2 Process to determine which signal to be released

Each signal will hold a flag at 0 initially and the signal at with highest value of Pn will get the
right of way, and once the green run is finished, the flag turns to 1. Once all the three flags turn
to 1, all the signals poll their P values which again determine which signal has to be given right
of way and in which order.
In this stage, we can also decide whether to skip a change for a given signal, which would be
done in case one signal has the value of P at 0 even after one full round, would make the signal
skip a change and mark its flag to 1 automatically, but this would be done only once and this
signal would be given special preference in the next round.
The signaling program would work on the basis of 2 interrelated processes that run
independently but co-ordinate to get the timing for each side of the signal. This paper intends to
present the outcome by varying the values of the counter and timing to count down the counter to
try find an optimal value for both the variables. This should help us understand whether these
values can be varied based on the nature of the traffic junctions to improve the dynamic timing
adjustments.
3.3 Programs to manage the signal timings at junctions
1) Individual program to calculate the time the traffic should be released.
2) Central program to manage turns between each direction of traffic.

4.0 Flowcharts for the Programs

4.1 Individual program to calculate the time the traffic should be released

Start
Start

C=5
Sleep t (seconds)
C=C-1

Previous Junction
Signal P value (T)

Pn = C * 2
n

Pn = T + Pn
n
n

Pn = Pn * 10
n
n

C is decremented till traffic

reaches threshold (Visual
sensor)

4.2 Central program to manage turns between each direction of traffic

Start

Read
A

P1,P2,P3,
1
2
3
P4
4

F1,F2,F3,F4 = 0
1
2
3
4

Sort in desending
order P1,P2,P3,P4
1
2
3
4

Release the
signals in the
order

F1 = F1 + 1
1
1
F2 = F 2 + 1
2
2
F3 = F 3 + 1
3
3
F4 = F 4 + 1
4
4

Is F1=
1
F2 = F 3
2

= F4 =
4
3

5.0 Algorithms to implement the processes

5.1 Individual program to calculate the time the traffic should be released
Step 1 : Start as C = 1 where C is a counter
Step 2 : After every 2 seconds (taken as initial value may vary based on requirement) C =
C1
Step 3 : Double the Value of C when the traffic at the signal reaches the threshold (30 to
50 mtrs from stop line) and store it as Pn
Step 4 : At this stage the P value of the signal that feeds the current signal is taken in as T.
Step 5 : Pn is now added with T to give the final value of Pn. (Pn = Pn + T)
Step 6 : Pn is now multiplied with 10 to give the final value of Pn which is the number of
seconds for which the signal is to remain green.
Step 7 : This step is passed on to the central program that handles all the signals at the
junction.

5.2 Central program to manage turns between each direction of traffic

Step 1 : The values of Pn from all the four signals is taken to release them in order.
Step 2 : Value of Fn for all four signals is initialized to zero (this would act as a flag for
each side of the signals)
Step 3 : The values of Pn from all the directions are sorted in descending order and traffic
is released in the same order.
Step 4 : Once all the signals are through, the flag values are incremented by 1.
Step 5 : Once The value of Fn reaches 3, the new values of Pn are read till then the current
values of Pn are used for the signals.
This arrangement to run the values for 3 times is to avoid, unnecessary shifting of times
in an urgency.

6.0 Future Scope

The system can also be used to integrate manual interrupts to detect accidents and
provide free through pass for emergency vehicles by passing the signals in their
direction to green with the help of the networked sensors.
7.0 References
1) Urban transport systems and congestion:a case study of indian cities Transport
and Communications Bulletin for Asia and Pacific No 82, 2013
2) Urban Transport National Transport Development Policy Committee Vol 3 Part
2