An application of TRANYST for mixed car/streetcar operation

While the TRANSYT model for optimization of fixed-time traffic signals in a network of mixed transit and private vehicle traffic is well established, certain interactions between transit and nontransit vehicles are not properly modelled in TRANSYT. As a consequence, the optimal signal timing plan and network performance measures generated by TRANSYT may not be appropriate for the actual network. This paper briefly reviews a modelling procedure, adapted for use in the TRANSYT program, that goes some way toward overcoming TRANSYT’s deficiencies in the representation of mixed traffic operation. The procedure is applied to a 6 kilometre corridor of mixed traffic operation in Toronto, Canada, to estimate the potential effects of incorporating streetcar operations in the optimization of fixed-time traffic signals.