The relationship between the opposing left-turn conflict and the traffic participants was analyzed in this study. Based on the traffic conflict technology, the image data were collected in a real traffic situation. Th...The relationship between the opposing left-turn conflict and the traffic participants was analyzed in this study. Based on the traffic conflict technology, the image data were collected in a real traffic situation. The relationship was investigated under two different conditions. The number of opposing left-turn conflicts was positively correlated with the number of left-turn vehicles while the ratio of left-turn vehicles to opposing vehicles was less than 1, and showed a positive correlation with the number of opposing-through vehicles when the ratio of left-turn vehicles to opposing vehi- cles was more than 1. In other words, the opposing left-turn risk was positively correlated with the number of the minor traffic participants, which had a negative effect on the whole traffic system op- eration.展开更多
To maximize the number of vehicles passing by the stop-line in a cycle and improve the operation efficiency of intersection in China, the settlement of left-turn lane waiting-zone is becoming prevailing. Based on conf...To maximize the number of vehicles passing by the stop-line in a cycle and improve the operation efficiency of intersection in China, the settlement of left-turn lane waiting-zone is becoming prevailing. Based on conflicting-point method, the internal mechanism of left-turn flow after stopping line was analyzed through taking postposition left-turn lane waiting-zone intersection for instance. The relationship between the first left-turn vehicle and the last vehicle of previous phase passing the conflicting point was expounded. According to the time of successive arriving of two vehicle flows at conflicting-point, the reasonable layout for waiting area of left-turn vehicles was researched when the clearance index was less than O. The results suggest that the appropriate layout for waiting area of left-turning vehicles can improve the operation efficiency of intersections.展开更多
Aiming at the problem that the vehicles always turn left in advance which causes heavy conflicts in the intersection and effected traffic efficiency,the solution of the left-turn lane’s stop line backwards setting wa...Aiming at the problem that the vehicles always turn left in advance which causes heavy conflicts in the intersection and effected traffic efficiency,the solution of the left-turn lane’s stop line backwards setting was proposed,and the critical conditions on the stop line’s setting were studied.Firstly,we studied the characteristics of trajectories distribution in the release process of turning left in advance vehicles.Based on that,we proposed to move the stop line backwards to solve the problem of turning left in advance.Considering the intersection’s geometric features and the vehicle operation features,the geometric critical condition was given for setting the position of left-turn lane’s stop line.And then the model of left-turn vehicles’queuing length was established based on queuing theory and traffic wave theory.By using queuing length model,the flow restrictions of stop line backwards could be found.Assuming left-turn vehicles’arrival rate is stable in a certain period of time,the minimum green time and the maximum red time of left-turn phase were given after the stop line was set up.According to the changes of the vehicles’turning paths,the shortest yellow setting recommendation was given.Finally,the application of the critical limits used in stop line backwards setting was demonstrated.The research result could provide a theoretical basis for traffic signs and markings’setting and perfect the relevant laws and regulations.展开更多
Based on the symmetric two-lane Nagel–Schreckenberg（STNS） model, a three-lane cellular automaton model between two intersections containing a bus stop with left-turning buses is established in which model the occur...Based on the symmetric two-lane Nagel–Schreckenberg（STNS） model, a three-lane cellular automaton model between two intersections containing a bus stop with left-turning buses is established in which model the occurrences of vehicle accidents are taken into account. The characteristics of traffic flows with different ratios of left-turn lines are discussed via the simulation experiments. The results indicate that the left-turn lines have more negative effects on capacity,accident rate as well as delay if the stop is located close to the intersections, where the negative effect in a near-side stop is more severe than that in a far-side one. The range of appropriate position for a bus stop without the bottleneck effect becomes more and more narrow with the increase of the ratio of left-turn bus lines. When the inflow is small, a short signal cycle and a reasonable offset are beneficial. When the inflow reaches or exceeds the capacity, a longer signal cycle is helpful. But if the stop position is inappropriate, the increase of cycle fails in reducing the negative effect of left-turning buses and the effectiveness of offset is weakened.展开更多
Heavily congested intersections in metropolitan areas in China are facing unique problems due to high travel demand and a high degree of traffic law violations. Based on a study conducted by the authors of this paper,...Heavily congested intersections in metropolitan areas in China are facing unique problems due to high travel demand and a high degree of traffic law violations. Based on a study conducted by the authors of this paper, 93% of left-turn vehicles turning left in these areas were slowed in order to avoid conflict with pedestrians. Intertwined pedestrian and vehicular flows can significantly reduce the capacity of exclusive left-turn lane group through reducing saturation flow rate, which increases the congestion at intersections. This paper investigates how the saturation flow rate of exclusive left-turn lane group is affected by the characteristics of pedestrian flow. By analyzing the imagery data collected by video cameras installed at intersections, the research team is able to obtain the characteristics of both vehicular and pedestrian flows, such as speed and spatial locations. The average operating speed at the saturation flow rate with and without pedestrian traffic is used as a direct measurement to evaluate the effect of pedestrians. Based on the statistical analysis, the paper concludes that saturation flow rate is mainly affected by the position of pedestrian in the crosswalk (inside or outside of left-turn vehicle’s trajectory), and the distance between the vehicle and pedestrians. In general, when the distance is less than four meters, the smaller the distance between vehicle and pedestrians, the larger the impact. However, there is no significant impact when the distance is larger than four meters. To accurately quantify the effect, the degree of pedestrian-vehicle impact is defined in four levels. The results show that the difference in the saturation flow rate between the best and the worst level could be 15.7%, which clearly indicates how important it is to enforce pedestrian crossing behavior.展开更多
Left-turning traffic without a protected left-turn signal is one of the major safety concerns at urban intersections. Though an average of only l0% - 15% of all approaching traffic turns left, significantly a large pr...Left-turning traffic without a protected left-turn signal is one of the major safety concerns at urban intersections. Though an average of only l0% - 15% of all approaching traffic turns left, significantly a large proportion of left-turn crashes occur involving 21% of all intersection fatal crashes. Where traditional safety countermeasures of signal timing-phasing and use of flashing yellow light have reportedly failed to significantly reduce the rate of crashes, an in-vehicle advance collision warning message can be helpful to reduce left-turn collisions at intersections. In this study, an in-vehicle audio warning application has been designed by providing two safety warning messages (Advance Warning Message and Safe Left-turn Maneuver Message) under the vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication system, which is triggered based on the acceptable gaps of oncoming opposing vehicles for a safe left-turn. A driving simulator test has been conducted with 30 participants to investigate the impacts of warning messages on performance measures such as speed and acceleration profiles, collision records, brake reaction distance, and intersection clearance time. Statistical results showed that with the help of these messages, all participants were able to reduce speeds and accelerations and chose suitable gaps without potential conflicts. Moreover, the results of questionnaire analysis provide a positive acceptability especially for the Safe Left-turn Maneuver Message. Based on the performance measurements, this type of safety warning messages can be recommended for possible real-road tests for practical applications.展开更多
As one of the UAIDs(unconventional alternative intersection designs),DLTs(displaced left-turn crossovers)have been presented to mitigate traffic congestion.Although,qualitatively and quantitatively isolated UAIDs outp...As one of the UAIDs(unconventional alternative intersection designs),DLTs(displaced left-turn crossovers)have been presented to mitigate traffic congestion.Although,qualitatively and quantitatively isolated UAIDs outperform their conventional counterparts,there is no simplified procedure to consider the DLTs coordination.Hence,this research investigates the coordination of consecutive DLTs under heterogeneous traffic conditions.To achieve the optimal coordination and provide an efficient coordination control,a bandwidth maximization progression approach was used.Seeking the optimal offset for each pair of consecutive intersections to guarantee the green bandwidth waves along the coordinated corridor,a mixed-integer linear program was adopted.The optimization problem was formulated and solved based on the standard branch-and-bound technique.As a real-world study case,data of three typical intersections located in an arterial corridor in Cairo,Egypt was used.PTV-VISSIM as a microsimulation platform was employed to simulate and evaluate the different signal timing plans.However,to represent the heterogeneous traffic characteristics as close as possible to the reality,different simulation parameters were tuned and validated carefully.The results emphasized the undoubted improvement of coordinated DLTs by different operational performance indices.The total travel time,average delay,the number of stops per vehicle were obviously improved.展开更多
The most common type of intersection improvement considered in Ghana is signalization. However, other actions such as the installation of left-turn lanes have been proven to improve the efficiency and safety of an int...The most common type of intersection improvement considered in Ghana is signalization. However, other actions such as the installation of left-turn lanes have been proven to improve the efficiency and safety of an intersection without the need for signalization in the short term. Warrants which guide the installation of such lanes in Ghana are adopted from elsewhere and as a result do not reflect local traffic flow conditions. This study established volume warrants based on a delay threshold to guide the installation of left- turn lanes at unsignalized T-intersections using VISSIM micro simulation tool. The VISSIM model was calibrated using traffic flow, delay, average and maximum queue length data obtained from a two-hour video recording of the case study intersection during the morning peak period. After calibration, several scenarios covering a wide range of opera- tional conditions were simulated. Using level of service （LOS） C cut off point of 25 s/veh as the maximum acceptable delay to minor road left-turning traffic, an equation y = -0.57x ＋1091 has been developed which predicts the minor road left-turn volume threshold （y） above which a minor road left-turn lane may be considered and below which a minor road left-turn lane may not be necessary for a range of major road volumes （x）. The critical delay to major road left-turning traffic was found to be 16 s/veh. Major road left-turn lane volume warrants were also determined based on this threshold delay value. The approach used in this study can serve as a guide that can be used by metropolitan and municipal road en- gineers to assess the need for left-turn lanes.展开更多
Left-turning vehicle movement at signalized intersections with permissive left-turn phases creates safety concerns due to the higher chance of conflict with opposing-through vehicles and pedestrians.In this research,a...Left-turning vehicle movement at signalized intersections with permissive left-turn phases creates safety concerns due to the higher chance of conflict with opposing-through vehicles and pedestrians.In this research,a simulation-based study was conducted to evaluate pedestrians’impact on traffic conflicts between left-turning vehicles and opposing-through vehicles(V-V conflicts)as well as traffic conflicts between left-turning vehicles and pedestrians(V-P conflicts)in the permissive left-turn phasing scenario.Intersections with different opposing-through volumes,left-turn volumes,number of opposing-through lanes,and pedestrian volumes were modeled in VISSIM,a traffic micro-simulator.The surrogate safety assessment model(SSAM)was used to estimate the number of V-V and VP conflicts.The effect of pedestrian presence on V-V and V-P conflicts was evaluated using simulation scenarios with and without pedestrian presence.Simulation results revealed that pedestrian presence increased both V-V and V-P conflicts.As pedestrian presence increased the total number of traffic conflicts,permissive left-turn phasing processed fewer left-turn vehicles to maintain the same level of intersection safety with pedestrian presence compared to the no-pedestrian scenario.Since current left-turn phasing decision guidelines do not consider the impacts of pedestrian presence,this research quantified pedestrian-influenced and pedestrian-involved left-turn traffic conflicts to determine appropriate left-turn signal phasing decisions to ensure safe and efficient crossing of pedestrians and vehicles at signalized intersections.This simulation-based study’s findings can be beneficial in the decision making of left-turn phasing selection as the before-after intersection safety performance analysis by collecting field data often resources intensive.展开更多
Purpose–This study aims to propose a centralized optimal control model for automated left-turn platoon at contraflow left-turn lane(CLL)intersections.Design/methodology/approach–The lateral lane change control and t...Purpose–This study aims to propose a centralized optimal control model for automated left-turn platoon at contraflow left-turn lane(CLL)intersections.Design/methodology/approach–The lateral lane change control and the longitudinal acceleration in the control horizon are optimized simultaneously with the objective of maximizing traffic efficiency and smoothness.The proposed model is cast into a mixed-integer linear programming problem and then solved by the branch-and-bound technique.Findings–The proposed model has a promising control effect under different geometric controlled conditions.Moreover,the proposed model performs robustly under various safety time headways,lengths of the CLL and green times of the main signal.Originality/value–This study proposed a centralized optimal control model for automated left-turn platoon at CLL intersections.The lateral lane change control and the longitudinal acceleration in the control horizon are optimized simultaneously with the objective of maximizing traffic efficiency and smoothness。展开更多
基金Supported by the Programme of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (B12022)
文摘The relationship between the opposing left-turn conflict and the traffic participants was analyzed in this study. Based on the traffic conflict technology, the image data were collected in a real traffic situation. The relationship was investigated under two different conditions. The number of opposing left-turn conflicts was positively correlated with the number of left-turn vehicles while the ratio of left-turn vehicles to opposing vehicles was less than 1, and showed a positive correlation with the number of opposing-through vehicles when the ratio of left-turn vehicles to opposing vehi- cles was more than 1. In other words, the opposing left-turn risk was positively correlated with the number of the minor traffic participants, which had a negative effect on the whole traffic system op- eration.
基金Sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.70631002)Youth Science &Technology Foundation of Xi’an University of Architecture &Technology(Grant No.0608)
文摘To maximize the number of vehicles passing by the stop-line in a cycle and improve the operation efficiency of intersection in China, the settlement of left-turn lane waiting-zone is becoming prevailing. Based on conflicting-point method, the internal mechanism of left-turn flow after stopping line was analyzed through taking postposition left-turn lane waiting-zone intersection for instance. The relationship between the first left-turn vehicle and the last vehicle of previous phase passing the conflicting point was expounded. According to the time of successive arriving of two vehicle flows at conflicting-point, the reasonable layout for waiting area of left-turn vehicles was researched when the clearance index was less than O. The results suggest that the appropriate layout for waiting area of left-turning vehicles can improve the operation efficiency of intersections.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.51108208,512782520 and 51278220)
文摘Aiming at the problem that the vehicles always turn left in advance which causes heavy conflicts in the intersection and effected traffic efficiency,the solution of the left-turn lane’s stop line backwards setting was proposed,and the critical conditions on the stop line’s setting were studied.Firstly,we studied the characteristics of trajectories distribution in the release process of turning left in advance vehicles.Based on that,we proposed to move the stop line backwards to solve the problem of turning left in advance.Considering the intersection’s geometric features and the vehicle operation features,the geometric critical condition was given for setting the position of left-turn lane’s stop line.And then the model of left-turn vehicles’queuing length was established based on queuing theory and traffic wave theory.By using queuing length model,the flow restrictions of stop line backwards could be found.Assuming left-turn vehicles’arrival rate is stable in a certain period of time,the minimum green time and the maximum red time of left-turn phase were given after the stop line was set up.According to the changes of the vehicles’turning paths,the shortest yellow setting recommendation was given.Finally,the application of the critical limits used in stop line backwards setting was demonstrated.The research result could provide a theoretical basis for traffic signs and markings’setting and perfect the relevant laws and regulations.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.50478088)the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province,China(Grant No.E2015202266)
文摘Based on the symmetric two-lane Nagel–Schreckenberg（STNS） model, a three-lane cellular automaton model between two intersections containing a bus stop with left-turning buses is established in which model the occurrences of vehicle accidents are taken into account. The characteristics of traffic flows with different ratios of left-turn lines are discussed via the simulation experiments. The results indicate that the left-turn lines have more negative effects on capacity,accident rate as well as delay if the stop is located close to the intersections, where the negative effect in a near-side stop is more severe than that in a far-side one. The range of appropriate position for a bus stop without the bottleneck effect becomes more and more narrow with the increase of the ratio of left-turn bus lines. When the inflow is small, a short signal cycle and a reasonable offset are beneficial. When the inflow reaches or exceeds the capacity, a longer signal cycle is helpful. But if the stop position is inappropriate, the increase of cycle fails in reducing the negative effect of left-turning buses and the effectiveness of offset is weakened.
文摘Heavily congested intersections in metropolitan areas in China are facing unique problems due to high travel demand and a high degree of traffic law violations. Based on a study conducted by the authors of this paper, 93% of left-turn vehicles turning left in these areas were slowed in order to avoid conflict with pedestrians. Intertwined pedestrian and vehicular flows can significantly reduce the capacity of exclusive left-turn lane group through reducing saturation flow rate, which increases the congestion at intersections. This paper investigates how the saturation flow rate of exclusive left-turn lane group is affected by the characteristics of pedestrian flow. By analyzing the imagery data collected by video cameras installed at intersections, the research team is able to obtain the characteristics of both vehicular and pedestrian flows, such as speed and spatial locations. The average operating speed at the saturation flow rate with and without pedestrian traffic is used as a direct measurement to evaluate the effect of pedestrians. Based on the statistical analysis, the paper concludes that saturation flow rate is mainly affected by the position of pedestrian in the crosswalk (inside or outside of left-turn vehicle’s trajectory), and the distance between the vehicle and pedestrians. In general, when the distance is less than four meters, the smaller the distance between vehicle and pedestrians, the larger the impact. However, there is no significant impact when the distance is larger than four meters. To accurately quantify the effect, the degree of pedestrian-vehicle impact is defined in four levels. The results show that the difference in the saturation flow rate between the best and the worst level could be 15.7%, which clearly indicates how important it is to enforce pedestrian crossing behavior.
文摘Left-turning traffic without a protected left-turn signal is one of the major safety concerns at urban intersections. Though an average of only l0% - 15% of all approaching traffic turns left, significantly a large proportion of left-turn crashes occur involving 21% of all intersection fatal crashes. Where traditional safety countermeasures of signal timing-phasing and use of flashing yellow light have reportedly failed to significantly reduce the rate of crashes, an in-vehicle advance collision warning message can be helpful to reduce left-turn collisions at intersections. In this study, an in-vehicle audio warning application has been designed by providing two safety warning messages (Advance Warning Message and Safe Left-turn Maneuver Message) under the vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication system, which is triggered based on the acceptable gaps of oncoming opposing vehicles for a safe left-turn. A driving simulator test has been conducted with 30 participants to investigate the impacts of warning messages on performance measures such as speed and acceleration profiles, collision records, brake reaction distance, and intersection clearance time. Statistical results showed that with the help of these messages, all participants were able to reduce speeds and accelerations and chose suitable gaps without potential conflicts. Moreover, the results of questionnaire analysis provide a positive acceptability especially for the Safe Left-turn Maneuver Message. Based on the performance measurements, this type of safety warning messages can be recommended for possible real-road tests for practical applications.
文摘As one of the UAIDs(unconventional alternative intersection designs),DLTs(displaced left-turn crossovers)have been presented to mitigate traffic congestion.Although,qualitatively and quantitatively isolated UAIDs outperform their conventional counterparts,there is no simplified procedure to consider the DLTs coordination.Hence,this research investigates the coordination of consecutive DLTs under heterogeneous traffic conditions.To achieve the optimal coordination and provide an efficient coordination control,a bandwidth maximization progression approach was used.Seeking the optimal offset for each pair of consecutive intersections to guarantee the green bandwidth waves along the coordinated corridor,a mixed-integer linear program was adopted.The optimization problem was formulated and solved based on the standard branch-and-bound technique.As a real-world study case,data of three typical intersections located in an arterial corridor in Cairo,Egypt was used.PTV-VISSIM as a microsimulation platform was employed to simulate and evaluate the different signal timing plans.However,to represent the heterogeneous traffic characteristics as close as possible to the reality,different simulation parameters were tuned and validated carefully.The results emphasized the undoubted improvement of coordinated DLTs by different operational performance indices.The total travel time,average delay,the number of stops per vehicle were obviously improved.
文摘The most common type of intersection improvement considered in Ghana is signalization. However, other actions such as the installation of left-turn lanes have been proven to improve the efficiency and safety of an intersection without the need for signalization in the short term. Warrants which guide the installation of such lanes in Ghana are adopted from elsewhere and as a result do not reflect local traffic flow conditions. This study established volume warrants based on a delay threshold to guide the installation of left- turn lanes at unsignalized T-intersections using VISSIM micro simulation tool. The VISSIM model was calibrated using traffic flow, delay, average and maximum queue length data obtained from a two-hour video recording of the case study intersection during the morning peak period. After calibration, several scenarios covering a wide range of opera- tional conditions were simulated. Using level of service （LOS） C cut off point of 25 s/veh as the maximum acceptable delay to minor road left-turning traffic, an equation y = -0.57x ＋1091 has been developed which predicts the minor road left-turn volume threshold （y） above which a minor road left-turn lane may be considered and below which a minor road left-turn lane may not be necessary for a range of major road volumes （x）. The critical delay to major road left-turning traffic was found to be 16 s/veh. Major road left-turn lane volume warrants were also determined based on this threshold delay value. The approach used in this study can serve as a guide that can be used by metropolitan and municipal road en- gineers to assess the need for left-turn lanes.
基金supported by Dr.Dey's start-up funding provided by West Virginia University.
文摘Left-turning vehicle movement at signalized intersections with permissive left-turn phases creates safety concerns due to the higher chance of conflict with opposing-through vehicles and pedestrians.In this research,a simulation-based study was conducted to evaluate pedestrians’impact on traffic conflicts between left-turning vehicles and opposing-through vehicles(V-V conflicts)as well as traffic conflicts between left-turning vehicles and pedestrians(V-P conflicts)in the permissive left-turn phasing scenario.Intersections with different opposing-through volumes,left-turn volumes,number of opposing-through lanes,and pedestrian volumes were modeled in VISSIM,a traffic micro-simulator.The surrogate safety assessment model(SSAM)was used to estimate the number of V-V and VP conflicts.The effect of pedestrian presence on V-V and V-P conflicts was evaluated using simulation scenarios with and without pedestrian presence.Simulation results revealed that pedestrian presence increased both V-V and V-P conflicts.As pedestrian presence increased the total number of traffic conflicts,permissive left-turn phasing processed fewer left-turn vehicles to maintain the same level of intersection safety with pedestrian presence compared to the no-pedestrian scenario.Since current left-turn phasing decision guidelines do not consider the impacts of pedestrian presence,this research quantified pedestrian-influenced and pedestrian-involved left-turn traffic conflicts to determine appropriate left-turn signal phasing decisions to ensure safe and efficient crossing of pedestrians and vehicles at signalized intersections.This simulation-based study’s findings can be beneficial in the decision making of left-turn phasing selection as the before-after intersection safety performance analysis by collecting field data often resources intensive.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.71971140the Soft Science Research Project of Shanghai No.22692194500the Pujiang Program under Grant No.21PJC085.
文摘Purpose–This study aims to propose a centralized optimal control model for automated left-turn platoon at contraflow left-turn lane(CLL)intersections.Design/methodology/approach–The lateral lane change control and the longitudinal acceleration in the control horizon are optimized simultaneously with the objective of maximizing traffic efficiency and smoothness.The proposed model is cast into a mixed-integer linear programming problem and then solved by the branch-and-bound technique.Findings–The proposed model has a promising control effect under different geometric controlled conditions.Moreover,the proposed model performs robustly under various safety time headways,lengths of the CLL and green times of the main signal.Originality/value–This study proposed a centralized optimal control model for automated left-turn platoon at CLL intersections.The lateral lane change control and the longitudinal acceleration in the control horizon are optimized simultaneously with the objective of maximizing traffic efficiency and smoothness。
