The Advanced Mobility Strategies team worked with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to implement Transit Signal Priority (TSP), a technology which allows buses to communicate with traffic lights to reduce the number of red lights encountered.

Capstone Team: Andrew Chuing, Kris Datta, Thibault Jauffrineau, Alec L’Amoreaux, Hamza Syed
Capstone Advisor: Alexander Skabardonis

Buses 38 and 38R along San Francisco’s Geary Blvd. suffer from slow speeds and frequent delays along one of the busiest corridors on the west coast. The Advanced Mobility Strategies team is working with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to implement Transit Signal Priority (TSP), a technology which allows buses to communicate with traffic lights to reduce the number of red lights encountered. By running traffic simulations using Synchro and Vissim, the team aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of TSP in reducing bus travel times along Geary Blvd. without significantly impacting other modes of transportation.

The team analyzed Geary and O’Farrell Streets, between Van Ness Avenue and Market Street and used Vissim to analyze the effect of Passive & Active TSP on bus travel times.

In addition to reduced emissions, pressure on competitors, and cost savings, the team saw substantial reductions in bus travel times under both Passive and Active TSP, without adversely affecting vehicle travel times.