Service interchanges connect freeways to arterial roads and are the backbone of the U.S. road network. Improving the operations of service interchanges is possible by applying one of several new solutions: diverging diamond, single point interchanges, and double or single roundabout diamonds.VISSIM was used to perform 13,500 experiments to simulate the traffic performance of the studied alternative interchanges during a typical day for a wide range of geometry and traffic scenarios. Five performance measures were investigated: daily-average delay, level of service of critical movement, daily-average number of stops, longest off-ramp queue, and longest crossing road queue. The obtained daily-average delays at the alternative interchanges were consistent with expectations. Roundabouts had the highest average delay while single-point interchanges had the lowest average delays. Roundabouts exhibited the lowest numbers of stops among all the alternatives in the low traffic range up to non-freeway 30,000 veh/day. Diverging diamonds tended to have the shortest and roundabouts tended to have the longest queues on their off-ramps. Overall, single-point interchanges had the shortest queues among all the alternatives.The study developed guidelines for early stage screening of alternative diamond. The guidelines exhibit performance measures for 25 traffic and geometric scenarios and a wide range of traffic volumes. The guidelines provide a fair comparison procedure for alternative diamond interchanges in the preliminary planning and conceptual design stages.
Service interchanges connect freeways to arterial roads and are the backbone of the U.S. road network. Improving the operations of service interchanges is possible by applying one of several new solutions: diverging diamond, single point interchanges, and double or single roundabout diamonds.VISSIM was used to perform 13,500 experiments to simulate the traffic performance of the studied alternative interchanges during a typical day for a wide range of geometry and traffic scenarios. Five performance measures were investigated: daily-average delay, level of service of critical movement, daily-average number of stops, longest off-ramp queue, and longest crossing road queue. The obtained daily-average delays at the alternative interchanges were consistent with expectations. Roundabouts had the highest average delay while single-point interchanges had the lowest average delays. Roundabouts exhibited the lowest numbers of stops among all the alternatives in the low traffic range up to non-freeway 30,000 veh/day. Diverging diamonds tended to have the shortest and roundabouts tended to have the longest queues on their off-ramps. Overall, single-point interchanges had the shortest queues among all the alternatives.The study developed guidelines for early stage screening of alternative diamond. The guidelines exhibit performance measures for 25 traffic and geometric scenarios and a wide range of traffic volumes. The guidelines provide a fair comparison procedure for alternative diamond interchanges in the preliminary planning and conceptual design stages.
This guide replaces the 1984 publication entitled An Informational Guide for Roadway Lighting. It has been revised and brought up to date to reflect current practices in roadway lighting. The guide provides a general overview of lighting systems from the point of view of the transportation departments and recommends minimum levels of quality. The guide incorporates the illuminance and luminance design methods, but does not include the small target visibility (STV) method.
A new way forward for sustainable quality of life in cities of all sizes Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work. New development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle. Read this book to find out how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life. Develop in-depth knowledge of the underlying logic behind the “traditional” search for never-ending urban growth Learn practical solutions for ameliorating financial struggles through low-risk investment and a grassroots focus Gain insights and tools that can stop the vicious cycle of budget shortfalls and unexpected downturns Become a part of the Strong Towns revolution by shifting the focus away from top-down growth toward rebuilding American prosperity Strong Towns acknowledges that there is a problem with the American approach to growth and shows community leaders a new way forward. The Strong Towns response is a revolution in how we assemble the places we live.
Interchanges are a particularly important focus in transportation because of the high level of interacting cross-traffic. Often, traditional diamond interchanges are limited in their ability to provide adequate safety and operational needs. Alternative interchanges are a common solution that involve using innovative designs which work well with specific site characteristics. Because there are often many alternative designs to consider and because it can be time-consuming to model and evaluate each alternative, there is a need to expedite the process using a designated screening approach and evaluation. This thesis contains an interchange study for a corridor located in Columbia, Missouri that uses a screening process which incorporates analytical and simulation tools. Several interchanges are analyzed including: diamond, single point urban (SPUI), partial cloverleaf, diverging diamond interchange (DDI), displaced left turn (DLT), roundabout, and an innovative displaced left roundabout (DLR). The results of operational analysis show that: the DDI performs the best on the interchange for high demand; the DLR performs best for the interchange only at low demand; the current design is sufficient with the given growth volume, so an alternative is not warranted. One contribution of this thesis is the development of a systematic procedure that first screens for promising designs and then conducts an extensive simulation analysis to compare their performance.
This book presents a history of roundabouts, an introduction to their design, calculations of their capacity and traffic-safety features. It describes the key features of standard roundabouts and their limitations. Alternative types of roundabouts are a fairly recent development and have only been implemented in a few countries to date. The book illustrates a broad variety of these recent alternative types of roundabouts, as well as proposed types still in the development phase, explaining for each the specific needs it meets, its advantages and drawbacks. In closing, the book offers an outlook on the role of roundabouts in future street traffic.
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 332: Access Management on Crossroads in the Vicinity of Interchanges examines current practices relating to access location and design on crossroads in the vicinity of interchanges. It identifies standards and strategies used on new interchanges and on the retrofit of existing interchanges.
This handbook, which was developed in recognition of the need for the compilation and dissemination of information on advanced traffic control systems, presents the basic principles for the planning, design, and implementation of such systems for urban streets and freeways. The presentation concept and organization of this handbook is developed from the viewpoint of systems engineering. Traffic control studies are described, and traffic control and surveillance concepts are reviewed. Hardware components are outlined, and computer concepts, and communication concepts are stated. Local and central controllers are described, as well as display, television and driver information systems. Available systems technology and candidate system definition, evaluation and implementation are also covered. The management of traffic control systems is discussed.
In 1960, there were 74,431,800 vehicles registered in the United States. Looking at the most recent data currently available shows that in 2016 there were 268,799,083 registered vehicles in the United States. Roadway facilities constructed in the 1960s were not designed to handle vehicular traffic of these proportions. The ever increasing volumes of motor vehicle traffic at heavily traveled interchanges and intersections heighten the risk of single or multiple vehicle crashes particularly when they are not designed to manage high volumes. Traffic engineers from state and federal departments of transportation have responded to calls for safer roads and interchanges in some areas that have been identified as dangerous because of an increase in fatal and non-fatal motor vehicle crashes. In the road network the highway system and the local street system are related. According to the Federal Highway Administration, "the term interchange means the junction of two or more streets requiring partial or complete grade separation." Interchanges located in urban areas are utilized to facilitate traffic flow between arterial roadways and freeways on- and off-ramps. Congestion and safety are the two main objectives traffic engineers consider while remodeling an interchange design. Several types of renovated interchanges are normally considered to meet the growing population mobility needs. The Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) is one of the solutions has been considered since 1974 but it was flourished and implemented in the 1990s. The other innovative interchange solution appeared first in France in the mid-1970s known as Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI). Likewise, the DDIs did not gain popularity back then until in the 2000s. The first DDI in the United States was constructed in 2009 in Springfield, Missouri.The main aim of this study is to compare the performance of traffic flow between SPUI and DDI based on existing traffic data for a peak hour retrofitting an existing Conventional Diamond Interchange (CDI). The analysis of the two interchange designs in conjunction with the existing design are used in the comparison study to identify which interchange design performs best among each other. The Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) used in this study include queue delay, queue length, vehicle delay and stopped delay. This study obtain traffic turning movements and signal timing data from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). The turning movement counts (TMC) were taken from ODOT's Transportation Data Management System for the year 2017. VISSIM version 11 software was used for microscopic simulation. The optimum signal phasing for the three interchange designs were obtained from SYNCHRO 10 software based on the PM peak hour traffic data. The virtual interchange network design geometry in both software programs were almost identical. Several assumptions were made to stay consistent as much as possible while comparing the three designs since they have completely different geometric layouts. For example, the existing CDI data included the through movements from off-ramps to on-ramps. Since the two alternative designs (SPUI and DDI) exclude the through movements from off-ramps to on-ramps, their data were added to the right turn movements. Moreover, the speed limit was set to be in the range of 30 mph while driving in the interchange to meet all three design specifications.The analysis of results show that there are significant advantages and disadvantages associated with each design (CDI, SPUI and DDI). During implementation, various factors such as cost, efficiency, safety, delay, etc., need to be considered when attempting to select the best design, which would be the most appropriate method as these may vary from situation to situation. However, in the current study, a DDI performed best, followed by a SPUI, and then CDI was last. Moreover, CDI with its signal timing optimized very highly improved all MOEs considered when compared with the CDI with existing signal timing.
