On representing signalized urban areas by means of deterministic-timed Petri nets

Signalized urban areas are microscopically represented by means of deterministic-timed Petri nets (DTPNs), with the purpose of providing a suitable modelling tool for traffic management and signalling control. The model described in this paper consists of signalized intersections and roads. In order to properly model traffic congestion, intersections are divided into several crossing sections. An intersection always includes a multi-stage traffic signal, whose stage matrix (i.e., the sequence of signal stages) is a-priori known. The DTPN representing the traffic model, intended to traffic management and signalling control, is proposed and fully described in the paper.