Signal Control Strategy for Supersaturated Traffic at Urban Road Intersections with a Large Technical Grade Gap

To reduce the risk of queuing overflow on the urban minor road at the intersection under supersaturation where the capacity of the arterial and minor roads shows extreme disparity, reduce the adverse effects caused by long queues of vehicles on the minor road, and comprehensively balance the multiobjective requirements such as priority of the main road, queuing restrictions, and delay on the minor road, the minor road queue model at the end of red, a road remaining capacity model, and multiparameter coordinated signal control model were established, and a multiobjective genetic algorithm was used to optimize this solution. As an example, the multiparameter coordinated control strategy decreased the delay per vehicle by approximately 17% and the queue length by approximately 30%–50% on the minor road and slightly increased the delay per vehicle at the intersection and the length on the main road queue. This control strategy can make full use of the capacity of the main road to control the queue length on the minor road, effectively reduce the risk of minor road queue overflow blocking local road network traffic operation involved, and comprehensively balance the traffic demand between arterial and minor roads. It provides a reference control method for coping with the transfer of the main traffic contradiction under the oversaturated state of the road intersection with large disparity.

Developing Signal Warrants for Restricted Crossing U-Turn Intersections

The restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT) intersection is a form of innovative intersection design that reroutes left-turn and through traffic from the minor road to U-turn crossovers on the major road. When implemented correctly, an RCUT intersection can provide significant safety and operational benefits over the conventional intersection configuration. The RCUT may be controlled by traffic signals, STOP control, merges and diverges, or a combination of these. There is currently no concrete guidance in relation to when the use of traffic signal control is warranted at an RCUT intersection. This study investigated traffic volume conditions that may warrant consideration of traffic signal control at an RCUT intersection. Simulation experiments including two geometric configurations and three traffic control schemes were designed and run in VISSIM to evaluate the effects of traffic conditions on intersection delay and queue lengths. Traffic was varied by changing the composition, approach volumes, and origin–destination flow patterns to reflect different conditions that may occur at the intersection on any given day. For the range of conditions studied, the results of the simulation analysis suggested that the RCUT intersection may operate better with traffic signals (at all junctions) when the minor roadway traffic volume is more than 450 vehicles per hour (vph) and the major roadway has two through lanes. The corresponding minor roadway volume threshold increases to 575 vph when the major roadway has four through lanes.

Sight distances at unsignalized intersections: a comparison of guidelines and requirements for human drivers and autonomous vehicles

Many traffic accidents are caused by unforeseen and unexpected events in a site that was hidden from the driver's eyes. Road design parameters determining required visibility are based on relationships formulated decades ago. It is worth reviewing them from time to time in the light of technological developments. In this paper, sight distances for stopping and crossing situations are studied in relation to the assumed visual abilities of autonomous vehicles. Current sight distance requirements at unsignalized intersections are based among others on speeds on the major road and on ac-cepted gaps by human drivers entering or crossing from the minor road. Since these requirements vary from country to country, regulations and sight terms of a few selected countries are compared in this study. From the comparison it is remarkable that although the two concepts, i.e. gap acceptance on the minor road and stopping on the major road have different backgrounds, but their outcome in terms of required sight distances are similar. Both distances are depending on speed on the major road: gap sight distances show a linear, while stopping sight distances a parabolic function. In general, European SSD values are quite similar to each other. However, the US and Australian guidelines based on gap acceptance criteria recommend higher sight distances. Human capabilities and limitations are considered in sight field requirements. Autonomous vehicles survey their environment with sensors which are different from the human vision in terms of identifying objects, estimating distances or speeds of other vehicles. This paper compares current sight field requirements based on conventional vehicles and those required for autonomous vehicles. Visibility requirements were defined by three vision indicators: distance, angle of view and resolution abilities of autonomous cars and human drivers. These indicators were calculated separately for autonomous vehicles and human drivers for various speeds on the main road and for intersections with 90° and 60° angles. It was shown that the required sight distances are 10 to 40 meters shorter for autonomous vehicles than for conventional ones.

Evaluation of a New Intersection Design, “Shifting Movements”

Several unconventional designs have been suggested to enhance traffic operation and safety at intersections. However, the operational benefits of implementing some of them are achieved only under certain traffic conditions. For instance, the operational performance of the restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT) intersection design manifests only under highly unbalanced traffic conditions. The RCUT intersection outperforms conventional intersections that are subjected to high major traffic and light minor traffic volumes, while its operational performance fades at intersections with moderate to heavy minor road traffic. In this technical paper, a new innovative four-leg intersection design has been proposed to replace the RCUT intersection under moderate and heavy minor road traffic volumes. The new intersection design which has been named the “Shifting Movements” (SM) intersection has a low number of conflict-points compared with conventional intersections, but similar to the RCUT intersection. Therefore, similar safety benefits are expected to be achieved by the implementation of the SM intersection. Operational evaluations and comparisons between conventional, RCUT, and SM intersections have been conducted in the microscopic simulation environment. Different traffic volume levels and left-turn proportions have been assumed to represent the peak hour with moderate to high left-turn traffic. The results indicate that the SM intersection design significantly outperforms conventional and RCUT intersections that are subjected to high traffic volumes in average control delay and throughput.

Modelling of Three-Dimensional Intersection Sight Distance

Intersection sight distance(ISD) is an important design element. Each intersection has a potential for several different types of vehicular conflicts that can be greatly reduced through the provision of proper sight distance. Current guidelines do not adequately address sight distance requirements for intersections located on horizontal curves alone or horizontal curves combined with vertical alignments. In many practical situations, however, sight distance is required to be checked for an existing or proposed three-dimensional(3D) intersection alignments. In this thesis, models were developed to check sight (2001) were considered on 3D alignment: (1)Departure from stop-control minor-road and (2) Left-turns from major-road. For stop-control intersections, several cases were addressed. These include Case 1(a): Intersection and approaching vehicle (object) lie on the curve, Case 2: Intersection lies on the tangent and object lies on the curve. For both cases (1) and (2), obstruction may lie inside or outside the horizontal curve and the intersection and object can be anywhere with respect to the vertical alignment. In many practical situations, however, sight distance is required to be checked for an existing or proposed three-dimensional(3D) intersection alignments. In this thesis, models were developed to check sight (2001) were considered on 3D alignment: (1)Departure from stop-control minor-road and (2) Left-turns from major-road. For stop-control intersections, several cases were addressed. These include Case 1(a): Intersection and approaching vehicle (object) lie on the curve, Case 2: Intersection lies on the tangent and object lies on the curve. For both cases (1) and (2), obstruction may lie inside or outside the horizontal curve and the intersection and object can be anywhere with respect to the vertical alignment. Design aids for required minimum lateral clearance (from the minor and major roads) are presented for different radii of intersections located on horizontal curves, guidelines are presented for offsetting opposing left-turn lanes to provide unobstructed required sight distance. Applications of the methodologies are illustrated using numerical examples.

Reliability Analysis of Sight Distance for Stopcontrol Intersections on Horizontal Alignments

Intersection sight distance (ISO) for stop-control intersections refers to the provision of adequate sight distance between a minor-road stopped vehicle and a major-road vehicle. The AASHTO policy for ISO for intersections on straight roadways Is based on the extreme values of the component design variables, such as major-road design speed and time gap, and assumes that these variables are deterministic. This research presents a reliability method that considers the moments (mean and variance) of the probability distribution of each random variable instead of the extreme values. This reliability method also accounts for the correlations among the component random variables. A performance function in terms of a safety margin is defined as the difference between the expected available and expected required ISO. Relationships for the mean and standard deviation of the safety margin are developed using First- Order Second-Moment analysis. Design graphs for the obstruction location are established for different radii of horizontal curves, design speed, and probability of failure. The reliability method is very useful as it provides the reliability associated with I8D design values. For evaluation purposes, the method can be used to determine the probability of failure of a particular intersection for an existing obstruction and current traffic conditions. The method can also be used to design the obstruction location for a given probability of failure. It was found that the deterministic method generally provides a higher probability of failure when the obstruction is closer to the minor road.

Modelling of Three-Dimensional Intersection Sight Distance

Intersection sight distance(ISD) is an important design element. Each intersection has a potential for several different types of vehicular conflicts that can be greatly reduced through the provision of proper sight distance. Current guidelines do not adequately address sight distance requirements for intersections located on horizontal curves alone or horizontal curves combined with vertical alignments. In many practical situations, however, sight distance is required to be checked for an existing or proposed three-dimensional(3D) intersection alignments. In this thesis, models were developed to check sight (2001) were considered on 3D alignment: (1)Departure from stop-control minor-road and (2) Left-turns from major-road. For stop-control intersections, several cases were addressed. These include Case 1(a): Intersection and approaching vehicle (object) lie on the curve, Case 2: Intersection lies on the tangent and object lies on the curve. For both cases (1) and (2), obstruction may lie inside or outside the horizontal curve and the intersection and object can be anywhere with respect to the vertical alignment. In many practical situations, however, sight distance is required to be checked for an existing or proposed three-dimensional(3D) intersection alignments. In this thesis, models were developed to check sight (2001) were considered on 3D alignment: (1)Departure from stop-control minor-road and (2) Left-turns from major-road. For stop-control intersections, several cases were addressed. These include Case 1(a): Intersection and approaching vehicle (object) lie on the curve, Case 2: Intersection lies on the tangent and object lies on the curve. For both cases (1) and (2), obstruction may lie inside or outside the horizontal curve and the intersection and object can be anywhere with respect to the vertical alignment. Design aids for required minimum lateral clearance (from the minor and major roads) are presented for different radii of intersections located on horizontal curves, guidelines are presented for offsetting opposing left-turn lanes to provide unobstructed required sight distance. Applications of the methodologies are illustrated using numerical examples.

Reliability Analysis of Sight Distance for Stopcontrol Intersections on Horizontal Alignments

Intersection sight distance (ISO) for stop-control intersections refers to the provision of adequate sight distance between a minor-road stopped vehicle and a major-road vehicle. The AASHTO policy for ISO for intersections on straight roadways Is based on the extreme values of the component design variables, such as major-road design speed and time gap, and assumes that these variables are deterministic. This research presents a reliability method that considers the moments (mean and variance) of the probability distribution of each random variable instead of the extreme values. This reliability method also accounts for the correlations among the component random variables. A performance function in terms of a safety margin is defined as the difference between the expected available and expected required ISO. Relationships for the mean and standard deviation of the safety margin are developed using First- Order Second-Moment analysis. Design graphs for the obstruction location are established for different radii of horizontal curves, design speed, and probability of failure. The reliability method is very useful as it provides the reliability associated with I8D design values. For evaluation purposes, the method can be used to determine the probability of failure of a particular intersection for an existing obstruction and current traffic conditions. The method can also be used to design the obstruction location for a given probability of failure. It was found that the deterministic method generally provides a higher probability of failure when the obstruction is closer to the minor road.

Effects of Pedestrian Crossing on Minor Road Capacity at Two-Way Stop-Controlled Intersections

Two-way stop-controlled (TWSC) intersections have been used extensively in the United States and other parts of the world when traffic signal control is not warranted. However, it was found that when a major road vehicle yields to crossing pedestrians, minor road traffic could use this extra gap, which tends to improve the capacity of some minor vehicle movements. The current capacity modeling methods did not take into account the effects of the pedestrian crossing on minor road capacity. This paper proposes an analytical model to quantify the increased capacity of minor street movements contributed by minor street pedestrian crossings and validates the model using both field data collected at a three-leg TWSC intersection and through the stochastic simulation method. A sensitivity analysis was performed to reveal the impacts of various factors on minor road capacity. In general, it was found that minor road left-turn capacity at the study intersection was positively correlated to pedestrian crossing volume, yielding rate, and pedestrian crossing time. Besides, modeling results showed that under relatively heavier conflict traffic volume conditions, the effect of the pedestrian crossing on increased capacity on the minor road was more significant.

Transport delay assessment at unsignalized intersections feeding focal points

The article discusses the issues of assessing the delays connected with the transport service of people visiting focal points (FPs) by individual transport (IT). The necessity of using a mathematical approach when assessing delays is proved. The factors influencing transport delays when driving through unsignalized intersections are presented. An integrated mathematical model is derived, which makes it possible to estimate the load factor at unsignalized intersections. This model is based on parameters that reflect transport demand and throughput capacity of an unsignalized intersection. The main parameters required for assessing the capacity of the minor road at an unsignalized intersection are described. An integrated mathematical model is offered that allows estimating the delay of individual transport users leaving the territory (parking lot) of the focal point. The authors elaborate recommendations for the practical application of the considered mathematical models while organizing transport services for focal points visitors using individual transport.