## 1 Introduction
Existing IBL systems are usually combined with TSP schemes to achieve priority passage of buses at the intersection approach [28; 29; 30; 31]. Unfortunately, TSP loses effectiveness with heavy traffic because the signals have to accommodate, not just the bus, but also the traffic in which it is embedded [10]. In high-flow traffic environments, TSP still forces buses to mix with cars, which can result in significant bus delays at the intersection [32; 33]. In addition, the traffic scene at intersections is more complex, where general vehicles will have the behavior of mandatory lane changing (or merging into lanes) near the intersection due to the journey route. Meeting the lane-changing demands of general vehicles at intersections while reducing the disturbance to bus running is an important factor to be considered in the setting of IBLs at intersections. In view of this, how to minimize the negative impacts imparted to vehicles (including general vehicles and buses) while maintaining the continuity of dynamic bus lanes at intersections, is a problem worthy of study in the current IBL system, which is the focus of the current paper. To this end, this research explores a novel method of setting the intermittent bus approach (IBA) of intersections based on lane multiplexing, aiming to alleviate the contradiction between lane utilization rate and bus priority at intersections. On the one hand, it can maintain the continuity of vehicle running between the lane and the intersection approach in the road section, where the operational benefits of the overall bus lane in the road section can be better brought into play. On the other hand, the traffic pressure of the general traffic at intersections can be shared through the bus approach, so that the road resource utilization of intersection approaches will be more balanced. The IBA setting method that we propose operates differently than traditional IBL-TSP in several ways: (1) it does not involve the signal control of downstream intersections in order to minimize the interference to the original traffic system, and can be used for each intersection independently without coordinating with the setting of IBLs in road sections, which has more flexibility; (2) it controls the opening/closing of the intermittent bus approach of intersections by setting VMS in order to realize the complete right-of-way priority of buses, and avoid the buses being delayed by the general vehicle queuing at intersections; (3) it considers the lane-changing demands of general vehicles at intersections, where general vehicles can effectively pass through the intersection by using the bus approach without interfering with the bus running. The goals of the current paper are twofold: (1) to define this new IBA lane operation strategy and (2) to verify its feasibility and evaluate its potential impacts, including both the benefits to buses and the corresponding impacts to general vehicles. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In the next section, the lane multiplexing-based method for IBA setting is outlined. Following that, the details of the IBA operating strategy are described, including its parameter optimization. Subsequently, microscopic traffic simulation experiments are conducted to verify the feasibility of the IBA operating strategy, and the experimental results are discussed in detail. The final section concludes this research and proposes further research topics.