Single-Lane Two-Way Operation

In honor of Work Zone Awareness Week, today I will be discussing how to model a single-lane two-way traffic control operation. We will start at the end, with a recording from SimTraffic. Then I will go back and discuss how this file was created in Synchro.

Start with a network that look similar to the screenshot below. Create intersections with “dummy links” located at each point where drivers will be required to stop before entering the single-lane section.

In the Lane Settings window, use the new Link Is Hidden setting for both of the “dummy links.”

Use the Cluster Editor to cluster the two intersections.

There are several settings required in the Timing Settings window:

•  Set the Protected Phase for both internal directions to Free.
• Set the other phases as two consecutive phases in the same ring. I have choses phases 1 and 2.
• You will need to decide what the All-Red Time should be set to. At a minimum, it should be equal to the travel time through the single-lane section, but you may want to increase it for safety considerations. For this example, I have used 40s.
• My example includes detection, but it is common to operate temporary signals like this as Pretimed without detection. Set the Control Type accordingly.

Congratulations! You have just created a model for a single-lane two-way operation.