Civil and Environmental Engineering

 

First Advisor

John Sangster

Date of this Version

7-2017

Citation

A. Buasali, “Broadening Understanding of Roundabout Operation Analysis: Planning-Level Tools and Signal Application,” University of Nebraska - Lincoln, 2017.

Comments

A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science Major: Civil Engineering Under the Supervision of Professor John Sangster Lincoln, Nebraska July, 2017

Copyright (c) 2017 Ahmed Buasali

Abstract

In United States, roundabouts have recently emerged as an effective and efficient alternative to conventional signalized intersections for the control of traffic at junctions. This thesis includes two investigations related to the operations of roundabouts.

The first investigation examines the ability of a planning-level tool (the critical sum method) to serve as an indicator variable for the results of the Highway Capacity Manual’s average delay per vehicle measure for a roundabout facility; to what extent do the results of one predict the results of the other? The critical sum method was found to accurately predict the HCM average delay per vehicle for low-volume conditions, approximately up to an average delay of 15 seconds per vehicle, but the tool was found to provide inaccurate predictions for higher volume conditions.

The second investigation looks at the potential of metering signals on a roundabout facility to transfer excess capacity from a low-volume approach to an adjacent higher-volume approach. The analysis indicated positive results for the theoretical benefits of the metering signal when only placing simulated traffic on two of the approaches, but the results were not duplicated when analyzing more-realistic volume scenarios with traffic on all four approaches.

Advisor: John Sangster.

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