Impressive results from Oriux LRT pre-emption and TSP

First published in Intertraffic Innovation News - April 30, 2020

Oriux, the evolution of Peek Traffic, has announced that it has developed and deployed a customised solution for the city of Minneapolis to reduce the delays caused at traffic intersections from repeated light rail train (LRT) preemptions and eliminate stops between LRT stations.

“The ultimate solution involved a unique combination of features in GreenWave, Oriux’s Linux-based local intersection software, including LRT preemption, peer-to-peer logic, pedestrian overlaps and transit signal priority (TSP),” says Gustavo de la Pena, VP of sales, Oriux.

Peer-to-peer logic and TSP work in conjunction with time-of-day signal coordination plans to allow trains to move from station-to-station without stopping in between. When trains are not present, TSP allows extra green time to be given to non-transit vehicle phases and extra walk time to be given to pedestrian movements.

The system is monitored on Oriux’s Spinnaker ATMS software by both city traffic staff and transit staff, giving complete visibility of real-time operations and historical logs for maximum civic benefit. The powerful TSP logs in Oriux’s GeenWave software provide transit agencies with a clear understanding of the impact of TSP events on general traffic.

“Results were immediate and impressive,” says de la Pena. “Former wait times to service a phase movement were recorded as high as 11 minutes. After deployment, maximum wait times are about four minutes. Also, LRT travel time was reduced by one minute, allowing the transit agency to remove one train set from daily operation.”

Oriux’s GreenWave features the most advanced light rail train preemption and transit signal priority in the market and is the preferred traffic controller by some of the major transit agencies in North America.