Iraj Bargegol - Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Mohammad Nikookar - Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
Reza Vatani Nezafat - Department of Civil Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Esmat Jafarpour Lashkami - Department of Pure Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics, Iran University of science and technology, Tehran, Iran

Signalized intersections act as one of the main elements to control the traffic flow at transportation systems in urban areas. However intersections as nodes impose more delays to vehicles. Creating maximum efficiency in transportation systems in urban areas and maintaining the optimal performance of these intersections always have been the main concern of traffic engineers. Furthermore, recently, the various kinds of programs and techniques are presented to help to traffic engineers to find optimized timing of signalized intersections. In this study, a new method based on kinematic wave theory is used through genetic algorithm technique to optimize the timing of three signalized intersections in the most crowded city in the north of Iran (Rasht city) to minimize travel time, delays and create better performing crossings at a dense transportation systems. The applied algorithm indicated that after the signal timing optimization, the average vehicle delay time can be reduced at the intersection in a.m. peak, noon peak, and p.m. peak by 31, 22 and 22 percent, respectively.

Optimization, Signalized intersections, Vehicle delay; Shockwave, Genetic algorithm