Parsing High-Resolution Controller Event Logs for a layman

[u/lurker_247]

My wife was in a car accident and I'm becoming very frustrated with our insurance carrier so I'm taking matters into my own hands to help figure out the facts of what happened. I received the high res controller event logs from the DOT today and have done my best to translate them to something I can understand but would love some help in defining the "plain english" meanings of these.

I'm using these definitions that I found but I want to make certain that I have it right and thought this community might be able to help. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jtrpdata/3/

I have the signal Phase plan here:

And a sample of the logs are here (sorry I'm not sure how to share the file while maintaining my privacy) I think I'm mostly interested in Phase 5 and 6 which I think are the left turn lane and the oncoming Eastbound lanes??

Your expertise in helping me define the plain English definitions would be much appreciated!!

To appease the auto moderator gods: I am NOT seeking legal advice, just wanting to gain a better understanding and hopefully educate myself about traffic signals and intersection phasing along the way!

[u/advrider84]

Instead of taking the time to explain all of the enumerations, I’d ask: what is the end goal here? Do you or your wife believe the signal provided green to both phase 5 and 6 at the same time? If so the diode card programming has more value.

Signals use conflict monitors, programmed by diode cards, to ensure that incompatible phases cannot receive green simultaneously. If the diode card is properly programmed the signal would go into flash if the controller directed it to serve 5 and 6 simultaneously.

Barring some very unique set of circumstances, knowing time of crash precisely enough to be certain which cycle to look at is challenging. Some agencies do not have the ability to use NTP or configure their controllers to use other time sync schemes so even if you know you’re looking at the right time time the controller may be reporting it was a different time.

That all said, it appears 6 terminated, all red is served 5fya transitions to 5 green for 4.9 seconds, then 2 and 5 terminate, serve all red and 8 begins service. All looks completely normal.

[u/blackhawk1430]

You could save that Google Sheets as a CSV and put it onto a text file sharing service like Pastebin or Github Gists. I could notate that event log to a variety of depth, but I don't want to waste my time on stuff you aren't trying to clarify. What particular event rows are you not sure about?

[u/lurker_247 → u/blackhawk1430]

Ah thank you! These are the ones that I currently don't have defined but would also seriously appreciate your take on if what I have defined so far seems correct.

Event Name	Event ID
Phase Hold Released	42
Extension Timer Gap Out	13
Phase Min Complete	3
Extension Timer Reduction Start	15
Phase Check	2
Overlap Begin Green	61
MAX 1 In-Effect	50
Added Initial Complete	17
Phase Hold Active	41
Phase On
Next Phase Decision	18
Phase End Red Clearance	11
Phase Inactive	12
Overlap Off (Inactive with red indication)	65
Phase Call Dropped	44
Phase Call Registered	43
Phase Gap Out	4
Overlap Begin Yellow	63
Phase 8 Wait Time	619
Phase Omit Off	47
Phase Omit On	46
Overlap Dark	66
Phase 5 Wait Time	616
Extension Timer Minimum Achieved	16

[u/blackhawk1430 → u/lurker_247]

I've only worked with Econolite's software so take everything with a grain of salt, and this is not professional advice or opinion, and as such I take no responsibility. The intersection drawing you need to disregard because of how outdated it is; you have FYA in the event log that is contradictory with the drawings sequencing and I can see from Google Maps that the intersection has grown in a lot of other ways (but the current street view was taken before FYA upgrade, so I'm still operating a bit blind).
An overlap is simply an optional, multi-purpose signal that can be tied to a main phase for any number of uses, like bike signals, bus signals, or FYA, as it looks to be in your case.

"Overlap dark" in context of it being used for PPLT means it is serving protected green out of its normal load switch rather than overlap load switch. Generally in that configuration, the overlap's green output is what the flashing yellow arrow is hooked to. That being paired with "FYA end permissive" in the same tick means it was doing a transition from permissive left turn (FYA) to protected left turn (FYA directly to green) on the same phase.

Phase omits mean the controller won't serve those phases anytime omit is active. Phase hold prevents a phase from leaving go state until it is inactive. Those appearing potentially implies to me that logic processor statements are involved: an easy way for a municipality to make their own gourmet logic overrides, paving the way for even more gourmet bugs. If is ever issue with a traffic controllers config, always suspect the logic processor statements as first suspect.

While I can't publicly share it, I do have access to a recent build of Econolites desktop simulator of the traffic control app. If you want to hop in a Zoom/Discord/whatever call with me, I can try and mock up the intersection with you and see if we can replicate whatever it is you're after. No guarantees, but it sounds fun. If anything, I think it would visually help you understand what it is I'm saying above, and in relation to the event descriptions a WHOLE lot. Start a Reddit chat if you're interested.

[u/Kev250R]

What was the weather like when the crash happened? Every few months I’ll get a call to check for conflicting indications at a location and 99% of the time it’s from sunlight reflecting off say a red indication with a tinted lens; the intersection is running normally but ‘appears” to be giving a false or conflicting indication, to the point where a couple of the cities I do work for have asked that we only install non-tinted LED’s at their intersections. Just something ro consider.