United States Department of Transportation
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State-of-the-Art Report on: Roundabouts Design, Modeling and Simulation
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2001-03-01
[PDF-1.10 MB]
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Abstract:With the increased success of roundabout use in Europe and Australia, there is a renewed interest of their use in the US. Several States, including Florida, are now considering the use of roundabouts to solve traffic problems. A large number of diverse factors are involved in designing a roundabout. Interactions between analytical, statistical, geometrical, static, as well as dynamic traffic factors make the design of roundabouts a difficult problem. This research investigated the state-of-the-art in roundabout design and analysis. The research team also investigated the use of a computer based simulation package for the design and analysis of roundabouts in the US. The Visual Simulation Environment (VSE) simulation tool was acquired and tested. Numerous traffic factors, and standards were found to be important in the simulation model. Three main criteria should be considered: safety, delays, and capacity. These criteria can be used to study the feasibility of using roundabouts, determine optimum design parameters, compare traffic scenarios, or compare a roundabout to an intersection, among other design functions. Our research pointed also to the significance of driver behavior. An essential element in the simulation of roundabouts is the gap acceptance process, as gap acceptance at roundabouts is likely to be different from traditional gap and lag times used for acceptance and rejections. Therefore there is a need for a US-based simulation model that takes into consideration US driving conditions and drivers? behavior. As more roundabouts are built in the US, data will become available to validate a US model. This document downloads as a self opening Word document. 43 p.
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