PRIORITY METERING CONTROL FOR AN URBAN CIRCULAR INTERSECTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14311/CEJ.2019.02.0024Keywords:
Metering control, Circular intersection, Simulation, Adaptive control.Abstract
Circular intersections have been used in transportation systems since the 1900s. Three
types of circular intersections have been used in the United States: traffic circles, rotaries and
roundabouts. While the use of traffic circles and rotaries in recent decades was found to have
resulted in high crash rates, safety issues have been mitigated for roundabouts through the use of
improved geometric designs.
Nevertheless, all three types of circular intersections face capacity problems during
periods of high traffic volume, resulting in long queues and delays. Signal metering was
introduced to reduce long queues and delays on the dominant approaches to circular
intersections by stopping the flow of traffic from other approaches. This methodology was found
to ease congestion for circular intersections with historically high traffic volumes. However, most
signal metering at those intersections employ fixed signal timing, in which the metering rate is not
responsive to changes in traffic condition. This study investigates the performance of an adaptive
metering system for circular intersections. The system was implemented on a real traffic circle
having high and unbalanced volumes. The model was calibrated, and a case study was simulated
for peak-hour traffic conditions. Using the PTV VISSIM application programming interface, the
algorithm was tested and the performance of the system was compared to the current intersection
operation. The results showed that adaptive metering can significantly reduce delays and queues
at a traffic circle. This preliminary study can be a useful reference for the development of prioritycontrolled
circular intersections.
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