Design of Transit Signal Priority at Signalized Intersections with Queue Jumper Lanes

A queue jumper lane is a special bus preferential treatment that combines a short stretch of a special lane with a transit signal priority (TSP) to allow buses to bypass waiting queues of traffic and then to cut out in front of the queue by getting an early green signal. This paper first proposes a signal control design for queue jumper lanes with actuated TSP strategies and then compares its performance with that of the general actuated mixed-lane TSP. Different design alternatives were evaluated in the VISSIM microscopic simulation. The results show that the proposed TSP with queue jumper lanes can reduce more bus delays than can the commonly-used mixed-lane TSP, especially under high traffic volume conditions. It was also found that a nearside bus stop is superior to the far-side counterpart in terms of both bus delay and overall intersection delay for the proposed design.