Research on Speeds at Roundabouts for the Needs of Sustainable Traffic Management

Abstract

Knowledge of the characteristics of speed at roundabouts is very important in design procedures, simulation models, and determining the influence of these roundabouts on traffic conditions in a street network. Sustainable management in the street network means the influence of all its parts on traffic conditions and travel time. In order to reliably determine roundabouts parameters in the procedures of planning and the choice of sustainable method of traffic management, it is very important to know the values of the traffic flow parameters, particularly the speeds at the entry and exit leg, as well as in the circulatory zone. This article analyses the speed characteristics in traffic flow at urban roundabouts with different geometrical characteristics in the city of Banja Luka. The applied method for traffic data collecting in this research was the method of video recording processing, which excludes any influence on driver behavior. Furthermore, statistical analysis was conducted, which established the correlation between the achieved speeds and geometrical characteristics of the intersection. Due to roundabout characteristics, the research was focused on the access, that is, the entry leg, the segment of the circulatory zone and the exit leg. The research results showed there is a significant dependence between geometrical characteristics of certain elements of the roundabout on speeds. In the further course of the research, it was proved that the variation of speeds at the segments of roundabouts significantly affects the size of time losses and emission of pollutants, i.e., parameters based on which it is possible to objectively assess the possibility of sustainable implementation of the planned solution of roundabouts of similar geometry within the street network in cities similar to Banja Luka.