Underlying Traffic Signal Control: The Key to Effective Transit Signal Priority: A Case Study of MBTA Bus Route 39 along South Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA
On Route 39, the MBTA’s fourth-busiest bus route, buses experience an average delay of 43 s at the Perkins and Bynner Street intersections along South Huntington Ave. While simply implementing Green Extension, a Transit Signal Priority (TSP) tactic, alone provides limited bus delay reduction, combining it with a TSP-friendly signal control logic and a TSP-friendly intersection layout cuts the delay down to just 5 s. This strategy also reduces pedestrian wait times by more than 60%, without sacrificing bike lanes or parking. Microscopic traffic simulations using PTV Vissim reveal that this smart approach does not even increase auto delay.
