Evaluating Signal Timing Planning Options in Terms of Coordination between Successive Signals at Continuous Flow Intersections, Phase II
Research Team
Chris Cunningham, MSCE, PE, North Carolina State University/ITRE
Ishtiak Ahmed, Ph.D., North Carolina State University/ITRE
What is the issue? Continuous flow intersections (CFIs) have been proven to increase the capacity for motorized vehicles. However, in a CFI, motorized traffic must go through one or more extra intersections often the crosswalks are multi-staged. Therefore, the coordination among different signals is critical to all movements for a CFI. Moreover, the full benefit of a CFI for motorized traffic can only be achieved at the cost of a complex and multi-staged crosswalk. Past studies that attempted to improve the coordination of the intersections at a CFI primarily focused on motorized traffic.
What will this project accomplish? This project will investigate the coordination of crosswalk signals, with the primary focus on pedestrians, at a CFI and its tradeoff with the motorized operation. First, the team will determine the signal timing plan that will maximize the coordination of motorized traffic for a given set of traffic operations and geometric characteristics of a CFI. For this model, the team will assess different crosswalk options regarding the signal coordination for pedestrians and develop an updated signal timing plan. Geometric characteristics critical to pedestrian movements will be identified. The performance of the models developed in these two steps will be compared to estimate the tradeoffs. It is expected that the outcomes of this project will help agencies to make CFI designs more convenient for pedestrians without significantly compromising motorized vehicle operations.