Timing Plans and Volumes

[eamonn286]

Within the same file is it possible to have different volumes with different timing plans, i.e. For my AM Peak I have AM volumes, but for other times of the day when I select the PM peak timing plan I want the PM volumes to come up with them. Is it best to have different files for each time of day and and then their corresponding volumes?

[bullock]

Yes, each timing plan has its own set of volumes. It may not seem that way at first, when you create the new timing plan because the new one is a duplicate of the currently selected one until you start changing things. But the volumes really are kept separately.

The Intersection Parameters dialog (as well as other dialogs) has a slightly different way of displaying parameters that are common to all timing plans (black) from those that are specific to the currently selected timing plan (navy blue). In this case, you can observe that the volumes in the dialog are shown in a (slightly) different color from the saturation flows, which are common to all timing plans.

Regarding whether to use one file for all timing plans or separate files, my personal preference is to put it all in one. (Obviously, you want to keep backups of this one to reduce its vulnerability). But the software facilitates, and some users may prefer, keeping different timing plans in different files. This is facilitated by the companion utility, CopyFromDgmFile, which will copy selected timing-plan-independent parameters from one .Dgm file to another. It uses the intersection ID numbers to match source and target nodes, so you'll need to make sure both files have consistent ID numbers.

Regards.
Greg

[eamonn286]

Ok, thanks a lot Greg.

Eamonn

[dav_1]

I like the feature of having separate timing plans saved into one file - I would like to know if I can save my trip reports into each individual timing plan onto one Tru Traffic file - so I would have travel time runs for all TOD patterns saved to one file.

I would also like to know if it is possible to rename the timing plans - the default is to save by the cycle length- there are some arterials that we work on that have same cycle length at different times of day - If I could modify the timing plan name so I can indicate the correct cycle length and TOD pattern (160am,140mid, 160pm, etc)

Thank you

[bullock]

Yes, you may keep all your trip logs for all timing plans in one file. By default, each trip log applies to all timing plans, but you can override this by specifying the timing plan(s) in which you want any given trip log to be "visible."

To do this for just one trip log, right-click on the trip log and choose Properties (Alt-Enter), then in the section near the bottom labelled "Visible in Timing Plan", choose the option to be visible in Selected Timing Plans, then check the ones that apply.

To do this for many trip logs collectively, you'll probably first want to group the trip logs by time of day. In View: GPS View: Trip Logs, click the Start Time column header button to sort all the trip logs by time of day. Select just the trip logs in the AM plan by clicking the first one in the AM and holding down the Shift key while clicking that last one in the AM. Then right-click on the collective selection, and about half way down the popup menu choose Visible in Timing Plan: Selected: and check the timing plan(s) that apply. Repeat for each timing plan.

You may rename timing plans in View: Network Parameters (F5): Timing Plan Name.

Regards.
Greg