A model entitled SOURCAO (signal optimization under rail crossing safety constraints) is
discussed. There are two objectives in SOURCAO design: highway rail grade crossing
(HRGC) safety consideration and highway traffic delay reduction around the crossings. The
first step in SOURCAO is to choose a proper preemption phase sequence to promote HRGC
safety. This is done by the inference engine in an intelligent agent. The second step in
SOURCAO is to find the optimized signal phase length to reduce highway traffic delay. The …

The dissertation proposed an approach, named “Signal Optimization Under Rail Crossing
sAfety cOnstraints”(SOURCAO), to the traffic signal control near a highway rail grade
crossing (HRGC). SOURCAO targets two objectives: HRGC safety improvement (a high
priority national transportation goal) and highway traffic delay reduction (a common desire
for virtually all of us). Communication and data availability from ITS and the next generation
train control are assumed available in SOURCAO.