Study on traffic signal coordination and optimization of urban arterials for emission reduction targets

With the advancement of Information Communication Technologies (ICT), joint control of urban arterial roads has gained more attention in recent years. However, most existing intersection signal control optimizations focus on vehicle traffic volume, control delay, and similar metrics. This paper develops an arterial joint control system to optimize both delay and emissions at the same time.First, a vehicle delay estimation method is proposed: it aims to minimize delay while accounting for the discrete nature of vehicle arrivals. Next, the MOVES emission model is adopted to categorize vehicles by body size and emission standards, thereby estimating vehicle exhaust. A dual-objective optimization model is then constructed and solved using the tolerant stratified sequencing method (SSM) and branch-and-bound algorithm.For validation, real traffic data were collected from an arterial section on Shangyuan Road, Xi’an, China. Three schemes were designed for comparison: a benchmark scheme, a single-objective optimization scheme, and the dual-objective optimization scheme. Results show that the proposed dual-objective signal control scheme reduces delays by 28% and emissions by 7%.Further simulations of the arterial system under different traffic conditions (via sensitivity analysis) confirm the scheme’s effectiveness in easing traffic pressure and cutting vehicle emissions. This study’s findings may help realize a low-carbon urban road transport system with high mobility.