Efficient Intersection Management Based on an Adaptive Fuzzy-Logic Traffic Signal

Traffic signals may generate bottlenecks due to an unfair timing balance. Facing this problem, adaptive traffic signal controllers have been proposed to compute the phase durations according to conditions monitored from on-road sensors. However, high hardware requirements, as well as complex setups, make the majority of these approaches infeasible for most cities. This paper proposes an adaptive traffic signal fuzzy-logic controller which uses the flow rate, retrieved from simple traffic counters, as a unique input requirement. The controller dynamically computes the cycle duration according to the arrival flow rates, executing a fuzzy inference system guided by the reasoning: the higher the traffic flow, the longer the cycle length. The computed cycle is split into different phases proportionally to the arrival flow rates according to Webster’s method for signalization. Consequently, the controller only requires determining minimum/maximum flow rates and cycle lengths to establish if–then mappings, allowing the reduction of technical requirements and computational overhead. The controller was tested through a microsimulation model of a real isolated intersection, which was calibrated with data collected from a six-month traffic study. Results revealed that the proposed controller with fewer input requirements and lower computational costs has a competitive performance compared to the best and most used approaches, being a feasible solution for many cities.