The objectives of this report are to develop an analytical model to estimate fuel consumption and to investigate the effects of signal timing on fuel consumption. Several numerical experiments, including a variety of geometric configurations, traffic conditions, and signal timing are conducted to test the AFCM estimation capability and to investigate the effects of signal timing on fuel consumption. The results from these experiments indicate that total fuel consumption, with respect to signal cycle time, possesses a convex pattern. In order to analytically establish the relationship between fuel consumption and signal timing, a three-term form is reduced from the AFCM to represent major effects of vehicle characteristics, traffic behaviour, and fuel consumption parameters on optimal cycle length. The first term represents vehicle ideal fuel consumption, the second term describes vehicle fuel consumption during acceleration after a stop, and the third term accounts for stochastic effects. Numerical analysis and comparisons show that the optimal cycle lengths from the expression are rather close to those from the AFCM. (Author/publisher)
Abstract