Traditional bus priority measures have failed to provide continuous priority along congested links and through oversaturated junctions. Queue relocation techniques have shown significant benefits in dealing with these issues and have been introduced at a number of isolated sites. The SCOOT coordinated traffic signal control system has experienced success in the UK and around the world in reducing the delay experienced by traffic in urban areas. Recent versions of the SCOOT software have included facilities that allow the traffic engineer greater control in managing the network. Many of these facilities are currently underused, but with an increasing emphasis on managing traffic demand it is likely this situation will change. This paper outlines the potential of the SCOOT "gating" facility in managing traffic flows and queues, particularly the scope for significantly promoting bus priority through the relocation of queuing traffic to points in the network where bus traffic may conveniently pass. The paper: (1) describes queue relocation bus priority, with reference to existing schemes; (2) describes the SCOOT gating facility and how it can be utilised to provide queue relocation; and (3) provides details of an experimental scheme in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames where the techniques described will be used for the first time in a cascading manner to manage queuing patterns along a corridor into Kingston town centre.
Abstract