Transit agencies are increasingly considering the deployment of transit signal priority systems along urban corridors. However, the number of parameters affecting the operation of such systems makes it difficult to estimate their expected benefits prior to deployment. To address this problem, simulation can be used, but the modeling efforts required make this approach non efficient for evaluating a large number of corridors. This paper presents a methodology that has been developed for evaluating the potential impacts of priority system deployments along urban arterials without using simulation. The methodology estimates the potential benefits of proposed deployments through consideration of parameters characterizing key roadway geometry, traffic flow conditions, traffic signal operations and transit service elements. These benefits are estimated by first considering the ability of each intersection to provide preferential treatments to approaching buses without causing significant negative impacts on the general traffic. A corridor-level evaluation is then produced by aggregating the evaluations of individual intersections. An evaluation of the methodology is presented by comparing its deployment recommendations with simulated hypothetical priority system deployments along a 39-intersection section of an urban arterial in Montreal, Canada.
